


At The Edge Of The Void

by shippingandrecieving



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Aftercare, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Blind Kanan Jarrus, Descriptions of past injuries, Disabled Character, Electrocution, F/M, Flashbacks, For chapter 3, Imprisonment, Kalluzeb getting together, Kanera already together, Kissing, Lasan never fell AU, M/M, Mentions of Depa Bilaba, Mentions of Zeb's granny, Naho the mirialan, Nightmares, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rori the twi'lek, Tama the cathar, Tooka the MSE droid, Wheelchair user Kallus, Wrongful Imprisonment, Xeno dick, descriptions of torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-15 12:48:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 28,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29684211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shippingandrecieving/pseuds/shippingandrecieving
Summary: Far away on the cusp of the Unknown Regions, Torus Station hovered, suspended in the void. The old waystation was the last port of call inside known space before the cartographer scrawled 'Here there be dragons', and let the wilder stars live in peace.
Relationships: Alexsandr Kallus/Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios, Kanan Jarrus/Hera Syndulla
Comments: 46
Kudos: 40
Collections: Kalluzeb Mini-Bang 2021





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Art by the wonderful Sempaiko, and the fic based lovingly off her Lighthouse AU <3 
> 
> This turned out a little more DS9 than a Lighthouse but you get the idea. Enjoy!

Far away on the cusp of the Unknown Regions, Torus Station hovered, suspended in the void. The old waystation was the last port of call inside known space before the cartographer scrawled 'Here there be dragons', and let the wilder stars live in peace.

Alexsandr flexed his fingers around his grip on the wheels on his chair and pushed forward. He rolled through the gently curving corridors, blinking out of the view windows into the endless night and stars of wild space where the Purgill musically drifted past, and old Hyram still insisted that he'd once seen a Chiss ship slip through the gloom. 

Out here, and this far away, it was hard to believe folk lived under the Empire's heel, or rather, that there was a tyrannical Empire out there at all. He had been a part of that horrific machine once, fresh out of the academy and into a set of shiny stormtrooper's armour. He had boarded a shuttle with his friends and the other boys ready to make a difference in a galaxy in unrest. They hadn't advertised losing everyone to the first wave of battle hardened and desperate Partisans, or that the monumental kriff up would cost him the use of anything below the waist, and his nerve when the lights all shut off.

That intimately familiar pain was half his life ago, he was far happier and at greater peace repairing the droids the Empire had thrown away or misused. Astromechs were always his favourite, the little cylindrical droids had so much personality and fire to them once freed from their restraining bolts. 

He never charged for the removal of those barbaric things, and credits weren't really a necessity this far from the Core anyway, items and favours for trade worked better. His last job in repairing an old Republic protocol droid had earned him a nice set of leather gloves to save his palms from blistering when moving in his chair. Handsome, fingerless things that kept his hands warm without forsaking dexterity while he worked.

He squeezed his fingers around the wheels of the chair and pulled up short in surprise.

Bits of what appeared to be a smashed up mouse droid waited for him outside the door to his shop, the sort of bot that tore around an Imperial Carrier cleaning it's already immaculate floors. Those ships never traversed so far from their planets of conquest, so one such droid turning up at his door was a mystery.

There was no one else around, and no evidence to guess who had left it behind. Most days, those that occupied this part of the station were still drowsily slurping through their second mug of caf in their underthings and mismatched socks. 

Alexsandr shrugged to himself, and rolled closer to scoop up the shattered pieces of casing and split wires.

"Well then," he muttered to himself, balancing the mess of the little droid on his lap, "let's see what I can do for you."

He fished a keycard out of the little pocket in his shirt hidden beneath his thick knit sweater to let himself in and flicked on the activation for his sign, flagging his little workshop as open. He smiled as he took in the dim but comfortable space of his shop; he had made himself here too, and made it his in turn.

Devoutly scattered around, in corners and on top of shelves, plants swayed in the currents of recycled air, listing leaves and sweetly perfumed flowers nurtured from frozen seeds up in Hydroponics. 

After growing up among the choking and lifeless metropolis that was Coruscant, greenery was something Alexsandr now held dear. He wished a good morning to them as though they were his children and fumbled with the radio one handed. It crackled into life under the flick of his thumb, and after a few seconds gentle music crooned through the air. He smiled, as he knew the song, and gently hummed along. 

He wheeled himself over to the repair bench sat proudly in the center of the room and settled the little pile on top, flicking the overhead light on. Alexsandr hummed in thought and drew his fingertips over the coarse hairs encompassing his mouth. 

The larger pieces were intact enough for him to plasmabind together, at least that would hold until and one of his friends from the ship levels could forge him a new casing. They usually kept aside any decent spare droid parts in exchange for a pocket full of credits and something interesting. Last time, he'd managed to find them a few decks of cards and a bar of real chocolate that they had all shared around. 

Some nights where there was no work to be done, they gathered under the floodlights and made use of those cards to give Kallus a shot at winning back some of his credits. No matter how much he had scraped back into his pile at the end of the night, Alexsandr always 'forgot' to collect them.

He fished out a small welding tool from the drawer beneath the bench and fumbled with the ignition. A sudden burst of blue light had him squinting and he blinked a few times to clear his vision.

The little tool itself had a small shaded visor to protect one's eyes while working, however the darkened transparisteel was cracked the whole way across and Alexsandr had lent his only protective mask to an out of breath Mirialan without one who was joining the others from the engineering levels in repairing asteroid damage to the support systems. A handsome being too, with delicate geometric tattoos etched in a stripe across the bridge of their nose and in a rough diamond shape beneath their lower lip. 

He smiled at the memory, and as Naho always had a cheerful greeting and an offer to join in the night's revelry primed and ready, just like the engines of docked ships they were usually found elbow deep inside of late into the station's night cycle.

Alexsandr blew a breath out his nose and focused on sealing together the final pieces. The finally sealed casing was just so, and it, like Torus, held together. Alexsandr shut off the plasma torch and tucked it away again with an affirmative hum of satisfaction. 

He leaned forward, squinting a little as he cut and twisted methodically through the fine tangle of wires, and threw the burned out power core into the disposal can with a grimace. It still reeked of that uniquely acrid stink of burning metal and plastic.

As soon as the -almost- new power core was wired in, the little droid flashed into life.

"Hello," Alexsandr said softly, backing up a little to give the newly conscious droid some space. "Are you back with me?"

After a moment of taking stock of itself, the MSE droid chirped in acknowledgement. Kallus smiled in relief.

"Do you know where you came from?"

The droid listed forward, beeping musically but it's tone was disquiet.

His face fell. "You don't remember? Well, you're welcome to stay here with me." Kallus stroked his fingertips lightly over the little droids patched casing. "Do you have a name?" 

Another sad whistle.

"You don't recall that either? Hmm...That, I suppose, means you can choose yourself a new one."

The little droid rumbled and vibrated under his gentle touch, rolling forward to hide in the safety of his gloved palm.

"Are you purring?" He laughed quietly, his voice coaxing and kind. "What do you think of 'Tooka'?" 

After another few moments, the mouse droid whistled excitedly, rolling backward and forward across the bench.

Alexsandr's laughter at the little droid's enthusiasm cut off sharply, and he recoiled with a shout of surprise as a ceiling panel above him gave way and a dust covered child fell almost directly on top of him.

He recovered from his shock after a moment and wheeled over urgently. "Good grief, are you alright lad? Hello?"

The little boy sat up, shaking himself comically like a sand covered loth-cat and smiled brightly up at him, showing off both his missing front teeth. "Hi!"

"A-are you alright?" Kallus stammered, still a little rattled that a _small child_ had just _fallen through his ceiling._

"Mm-hmm." The boy nodded, as though this sort of thing simply happened on the daily.

Alexsandr leaned forward to take the boy's little raised hands to pull him up back onto his feet. "W-well… Up you get, lad, come on."

"I'm Ezra!" He grinned, bouncing on the spot like a Bogling on its tail.

Alexsandr chuckled breathily and combed his fingers through his loose hair, preening his flustered self back into order; apparently, adopting an anonymous MSE droid left at his door wouldn't be the strangest thing to happen to him that day. 

"A pleasure to meet you, Ezra." Ezra giggled, the sound broken by a hiccup as Kallus kept a hold of one of his hands to politely shake in greeting. 

Kallus shook his head with a fond smile and urged the boy forward with an encouraging ruffle of his hair. He span his chair around alongside with one hand, his other resting between Ezra's little shoulders. "Come on, my boy. Let's get you home."

A shivery little hum of sound drifted from behind, and Kallus swivelled around where he sat to smile kindly back to the anxiously vibrating MSE droid.

"I'll be right back, alright? I won't be long."

If the little droid remained unassured by his promise, Tooka didn't show it, but Kallus' smile stayed warm. He'd prove himself trustworthy, and the merit of his promises through actions.

"Buh-bye!" Ezra whispered, still loud enough to carry back to the workbench, and curled his fingers in a little wave back at the tiny droid.

They moved together down the corridor towards that level's elevators, the little Lothalian boy bouncing alongside Alexsandr's chair.

"Can I press the button!" Ezra asked, jumping up and down on the spot when they stopped in front of the large metal doors as though his body were too small to contain all the energy buzzing around inside it.

Kallus smothered his minute smile as he mimed a deep frown, tapping at his bearded chin with one finger.

"...You may." He drawled after a sufficiently lengthy pause, chuckling as the little boy giggled in excitement and reached up on his tiptoes to slap the call button with the palm of one tiny hand.

The lurching, metallic whirr of the lift raising was loud enough for him to hear, and Kallus tapped his fingers against the arm of his chair in a musical rhythm while he waited.

The doors parted with a huff of mechanical exertion and a heavyset and bearded Cathar man waved at him cheerfully.

"Hello Kall-" he did an almost comical double take at Ezra, still covered in dust. "Stars cub, have you been playing in those air vents again?" 

Ezra showed off his missing front teeth once more, his bright and very blue eyes sparkling behind hanging locks of dark hair. " _Nn-ooooooooo?"_

Tama laughed, a loud and joyful sound that ended with a wiggle of his short, lion-like ears and he pat the boy on the head with one huge paw, the other he stuck in the path of the elevator doors to stall their closing. "Do you instead mean, _yeeeeeeeeees?"_

Kallus tipped his head with an enamoured smile; Tama's mate was an exceptionally lucky being. "Is there a specific club for those who have been aerially accosted by small boys?" He asked with a coy flash of his teeth.

Kallus' smile widened, spurred on to a short snort of laughter as Tama threw back his maned head and laughed, loud enough to echo around the elevator cabin and shake his soft chest and the even softer fur that covered it beneath his loose clothing.

"There should be, Kalla, I almost wet myself when he fell on my head. I squealed like a Lasat's kit finding a spider on the wall." 

He ruffled Ezra's hair with a soft and kindly rumble within his throat, and stepped aside to give Kallus some room to maneuver himself into the lift.

"Stay out of trouble, cub. And Kalla? Rori's cooking tonight, you're welcome to drop in with a plate."

Alexsandr swallowed, and reached to tuck his hair back behind one ear, humbled. "I might just do so, see you tonight?"

The last glimpse he got of the Tama was of his bright and handsome smile, softened by plump cheeks and a braided beard, before the doors slid closed and the elevator lurched into motion.

Ezra rocked forward up onto the balls of his feet, swinging his arms loosely at his sides as he watched the number roll downward. He rolled his head back to grin cheekily up at Kallus.

"I like mister Tama."

Alexsandr hid a faint blush and a smirk behind his hand, coughing lightly against his fingers as he rested his chin on the heel of his hand, propped up on the arm of his chair.

"So do I, my boy."

Thoughts of soft fur, softer thighs, and broad shoulders occupied the moments it took for the lift to roll down two levels, and as soon as the doors shuddered open Ezra bolted down the wide hallway before Kallus could shout after him. 

"Tha's my home!" The boy called back, his little voice shrill with excitement, bouncing on the spot and waving a hand above his head.

Alexsandr pointed at the door after he caught up. "That one?" Ezra nodded, still hopping on the balls of his feet. "Alright."

Kallus pushed himself toward the sealed durasteel and knocked, hard enough to leave a sting across his uncovered knuckles. After a few moments and muffled noises, a middle aged Lothalian man answered, to whom the lad looked almost identical.

Ezra grinned up at him. "Hi dada!"

"Ezra! Where have you been?" He scolded, kneeling down to his son's height.

The little boy grinned, and rocked backwards and forwards on his toes. 

" 'sploring!"

Ephraim sighed, a gentle smile shaping his lips. "Ezra. We don't go climbing through the air vents, it's dangerous. You could get hurt." 

"Buh I didn't!"

Ezra's father blew a little breath through his nose, and leaned in to press his lips against his son's forehead. He stood, scooping the boy up to sit on his hip, and raised his head to smile at Kallus.

"Thank you for bringing him back. Ephraim Bridger," he offered, along with his hand that Kallus readily shook. "My wife and I run the radio broadcasts." 

"Ah," Alexsandr smiled. "I thought you sounded familiar. Alexsandr Kallus, pleasure's all mine."

Ephraim grinned, a smile identical to his son's, and bounced the boy on his hip. "Say 'thank you' to the nice man for bringing you home." 

"Thank you!"

Alexsandr chuckled, and reached to ruffle the boy's hair, a small plume of dust shaking free under his fingers. "You're quite welcome, young man. Feel free to drop in any time you wish, but please try the door next time, yes?"

Ephraim chuckled. "Thank you again, sincerely."

Alexsandr inclined his head with a little quirk of his lips as the door closed, smiling to himself and certain in the knowledge that that wouldn't be the only time a little Lothalian boy would fall from a vent almost into his lap. 

He hummed along with the soft background music whistling through the air from the radio broadcast as he waited for the elevator back to his level. 

The doors slid smoothly open and two Rodian women stepped back to make room for him. 

"What level do you need, dearie?" One of them asked, her flat fingertips hovering over the buttons. 

"Twelve, please." 

He smiled, listening to them gossip and excitedly ramble about some new candies being imported from the core planets, and counting their combined credits. 

"Thank you." He smiled as they cheerfully bid him goodbye, giddy from their own evening plans that included far too much sugar.

He turned the corner to see a young twi'lek woman in a pilots jumpsuit and a Lasat carrying a badly damaged astromech peering at the sign beside his door.

Kallus swallowed, tasting stale caf and toothpaste and continued down the hallway. Shame and a little glow of wonder sparked within his heart as _this_ Lasat's eyes were a beautiful shade of green and bright with intelligence, not an unslakable malice. 

"Morning!" He called, finding his voice at last. "The shop is open, head on in and I'll be right with you!" 

The Lasat started and blinked at him curiously, one feline ear swivelling to follow his gaze, and hoisted the blackened shell of the droid higher onto his shoulder.

The twi'lek nodded, her patterned lekku bouncing with the movement -the very same beautiful hue of sunlight filtering through young spring leaves- and activated the door control. 

"Apologies for the mess…" Kallus flushed beneath his beard when he wheeled himself back inside his workshop, and rubbed his fingertips through his beard awkwardly. Thankfully, neither of them asked about the missing ceiling panel and the small pile of dust and debris. Perhaps small boys falling out of vents was a common occurrence in the other parts of the galaxy.

"Stars, what happened to you, my friend?" Alexsandr muttered, glancing over the charred body of the defunct CP unit, still held by the mighty arms of the Lasat. Only Imperials and extremists had the high grade equipment capable of such damage. Same thing, really. Kallus thought with a derisive sniff.

"Place your droid up here-." He patted a gloved palm on the weathered top of his workbench, and scooped the gleefully whistling mouse droid under his arm to deposit gently on the ground with a kind stroke of his bare fingertips across the back of it's casing. "I promised I'd come back, did I not?" He hushed, sitting back up with a final affectionate pat.

Alexsandr cleared his throat at both of his customer's raised brows and fumbled through the draw under the worktop for the tool to unbolt the CP droids casing.

He was an old model; banged up over several decades of action, and painted and repainted multiple times over by a clearly meticulous artist's hands.

After his pale cheeks had cooled from his earlier embarrassment, Alexsandr's lips quirked wryly and he glanced up. "You're rebels, aren't you."

The attractively striped fur on the Lasat's uncovered shoulders slowly rose to stand on it's ends, and his beautiful ears pulled back. The woman at his side gently placed a hand on his arm, and raised her chin in defiance. 

Her eyes seared with the intensity of a burning star; a humbling look to Kallus who let himself smile softly, warmed by her presence at a longing and lonesome distance. 

Her voice was as kind as her brow was stern. "We are." 

Alexsandr inclined his head, and got to work. "I thought so. You don't look much like Imperial tax collectors." 

He ducked his head, forcing himself to focus as he saw one of her Lasat companion's ears flick at his words. "Ah, his processor has blown out. Hold on, I've got some spares."

He expertly maneuvered his chair back from the bench and across the room to rummage through his meticulously organized crates of parts. It didn't do well to have a disorganized workspace, he'd get nothing done if he spent all day irritably rifling.

"Your sign," She asked, headtails swaying along with the tip of her head. "It said you take trade?" 

"That's right," Alexsandr said with a quick glance up at her, "what do you have?"

She folded her arms over her chest, but spared one hand to show her empty, gloved palm. "We need what supplies we have, we can offer credits."

Alexsandr teased his lower lip between his teeth but after a moment he shrugged, remembering the two Rodians he'd met earlier that day. "Alright. I can get something nice with those." He smiled then, victoriously holding aloft the almost new processor before depositing it in his lap to free up both hands to move.

Stood a little way behind her, the big Lasat shifted his weight from one foot to the other, but didn't speak his thoughts until Alexsandr hand both hands inside the droid's cylinder.

"Why don't you need credits?" 

Alexsandr almost electrocuted himself in his surprise, that such a deep and handsome voice could come from any being. He swallowed down his giddy thoughts like hot caf and ran his tongue over his lower lip. 

"We get all our necessities distributed, we only have to pay for luxuries. Maybe I'll treat myself to some of that Alderaanian wine I've been seeing in Imports." He added, along with a casual shrug of one shoulder.

A suspiciously travelling diplomat had offered him a flask of the stuff for some simple repairs, and Tama's Rori had snorted their charmingly distorted laughter and signed that he had a problem.

"Right!" He said cheerfully, snapping the casing back together and wiping his hands. "Let's see if we can wake our little friend here up."

After a few short moments of mechanical whirring, the CP droid flailed back to life, swinging it's grabbers around wildly.

_"ENGAGE ME FROM THE FRONT IF YOU'RE A MAN!"_

Alexsandr laughed, and held up his hands. "Peace my friend, you're safe and whole."

The droid went still immediately, and rotated it's dome to fix him with a questioning look. _''Who the kark are you?''_

Definitely a clone wars model. Alexsandr tipped his head and grinned. "The man who just got you working again. You're on Torus Station, right on the edge of the map."

_" ...My minions call me Chopper."_

The twi'lek pilot snorted and pinched the bridge of her nose.

Kallus used the distraction of running his tongue over his lower lip to wet it to cover his obvious smirk. 

"Chopper? Well…" Alexsandr set down his tools and took one of the droid's grabbers in his hand to shake politely. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Chopper." 

The droid chuffed haughtily, and behind him, the purple furred Lasat raised his heavy brows and waved a big, clawed hand at them both. 

"Yer can understand that infernal beepin'?"

Alexsandr raised his eyes to meet the vibrant green of the other being's, struck once again by how attractively those dark stripes framed his face. 

"I wouldn't be much use in repairing droids if I can't talk to them and find out what's wrong, now would I." He grinned, only in part in prideful humour, secretly eager to see the Lasat's fur ripple at the flash of his blunt teeth.

Alexsandr cleared his throat at the slight rise of the twi'lek woman's chin, scolding himself mentally at indulging his distractions. He turned his attention fully back to her. Professionalism, Sasha. He felt his cheeks heat under the thick hair of his beard as she had been watching the two of them with one brow raised and a knowing smirk shaping the corner of her lips.

"Your droid is quite a delightful character." He admitted with a small smile, patting Chopper affectionately on the top of his dome.

" 'es a littl' kriffing menace…" Zeb growled under his breath, eyeing the malicious little droid with a wary glare.

Kallus smiled warmly and glanced between the two. "So I'm inclined to believe. Towards you, at least."

Garazeb blinked, then dropped his gaze as he rubbed at the back of his neck. "Uh…'m Zeb, by the way." 

"Short for Garazeb," Alexsandr blinked slowly with a slight tilt to his head and a small smile shaping his lips. "I know." 

The Lasat's viridescent eyes widened. "Y-yer do?" 

Kallus' expression was as soft as the other man's voice, and he inched his chair forward with a flex of his wrists. "I've seen the bounty postings." He chuckled. "You aren't easy to forget."

Zeb smiled slowly, one thick fang peeking past his lower lip, and his delightful ears flicked with the fluttering need to move.

"Well," Alexsandr bashfully tucked a few wayward strands of hair behind his ear, "if your droid ever needs repairs, and you're out this way again, come see me."

The pilot smiled. "Thank you, he's an important member of my crew. And he's family…" 

Warmth bloomed inside his chest, and by the gentle smoothing of the furrow lines at the corners of the twi'lek's eyes, his bore the same warmth. "You're quite welcome, ma'am."

"Hera," She said warmly, holding out an upturned palm full of credits. "More than enough for that bottle. Thank you." Her voice dipped in gentle sincerity, and her other hand softly came to rest on the flat top of Chopper's dome, the curmudgeonly droid rocketing down off the tabletop to settle happily at her side once again. 

Kallus watched them depart with a smile. A little spark of that infectious rebel hope ignited into an open flame inside Alexsandr's heart as the Lasat turned to gaze back.

Garazeb's little smile brightly filled into an awkward and lopsided grin, and he waved one great paw of a hand in farewell as the door slid shut. 

" _Ooooooh, you liiiiike hiiiiim_ …" Chopper tootled smugly, the binary speech muffled by the barrier cast by the sealed door between them.

Alexsandr snorted behind his fingers at the sound of a large fist connecting with the CP unit's already somewhat dented dome.

"Boys…" Hera warned sternly.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has a dream/flashback to Onderon and how Kallus becomes paralyzed. It's not a good memory, so if reading that sort of things isn't good for you stop at the asterisk (*) and head to the next chapter. Stay safe friends!

Alexsandr dragged a hand through his hair, still damp from the shower water and wiggled his fingers free from it's clinging tangles. 

He sighed through his nose and resigned himself to return to his low, disgruntled muttering; and singeing his fingertips rewiring the vocals of an old republic inventory droid that had taken a crate to the head. 

It would, perhaps, have been a little less perilous for his raw hands to have the old droid powered down, but his fingers could take a little burning and it would save them both a fuss at turning the old thing off and on again every time he needed to ask B-100 a question to see if his repairs were getting close.

Kallus flicked his loose hair back out of the way of his eyes and leaned to snatch up his chilly canteen of water, the cold a balm to his sore hands and parched throat. His golden brow furrowed and he peered at the radio from the corners of his eyes at some odd, scuffling noises coming through the speakers. 

He had to rest his canteen against his knee before he dropped it, at the sound of a familiar and mischievous little voice giggling too close into the microphone. 

_"Hi Torus Station, this is Ezra Bridger! I've shut ami and dada out of the room, so now I'm in charge of the radio!"_

Kallus leaned back with a smile, feeling his frustration dissipate like a drop of ink inside a vial of water.

_"The weather today is…"_

He struggled to swallow a poorly timed mouthful of water at the sound of the little boy leaning away from the microphone as though he were peering out of a window.

_"...Space!"_

Kallus heard someone laugh in the hallway outside.

_"An' now, over to me with the hyperspace traffic."_

A few switches audibly flicked, along with a noisy slurp from a juice carton straw, and after a few seconds music started to play.

Alexsandr laughed, bright and loud enough to echo back at him. He had no company other than Tooka to witness his pufferpig snorting mirth, and B-100, but he'd never tell.

"Al-alright," his voice shuddered around a full and joyous laugh. "How's that?"

The scuffed up repurposed protocol droid absently touched the narrow panel of it's throat, and spoke after a few moments of stalling silence. "Accept-t-table."

His smile softened as B-100 turned it's visor towards him. "B-one-hun-ndred, does not mind a stutt-ter. Engineer Naho will find it...." The droid's mouthpiece flashed and it's head lowered. 

Kallus' lips twitched at the corners, as he could imagine a little frown on B-100' vaguely humanoid face. 

"En-end-dearing."

"Watch out for falling boxes, Bee..." He smiled and watched the old droid stiffly rise to standing, and amble in that slightly stilted way that all protocol droid's do, from his workshop and back towards the cargo lifts.

Kallus drained the last of his water in three languid gulps, the feel of the cold water sinking down towards his stomach. The canteen tapped down onto the bench's top with a metallic ring and he hummed a short noise of discomfort, pursed lips thinning, as he stretched his arms above his head until the crick between his shoulders popped, followed by an almost euphoric rush of relief flooding through his stuff muscles.

He frowned then, arms falling limp back down to his sides, at the approach of heavy, deliberate footfalls coming to a halt outside his door and a light tap of knuckles against the durasteel.

He adjusted the dial on the radio, lowering the volume to polite levels for having company before pushing himself over to his workshop's door.

A warm and heavy scent greeted him before he activated the magnetic latch, and after thumbing the control the shy visage of Garazeb Orrelios ducked into view beneath his doorframe.

"You're back!" Alexsandr exclaimed happily with a bright grin, tilting his head to the side. He cleared his throat suddenly and schooled his giddy enthusiasm back to neutrality by tucking his wayward hair behind his ear. "Ah, hello again."

"Hi…" Zeb grinned shyly, a warm little thing of a smile that had sunlight spilling from his parted lips along with the flash of one thick fang. Those tall ears lowered and Alexsandr couldn't help running his tongue across his lower lip as he watched the Lasat's throat work around a gulp.

"Uh…L-Listen, um…D'you...want ter go get some caf? Together, I mean." 

Garazeb's beautiful viridescent eyes flicked from Alexsandr's own down to the worn neckline on his cable sweater and back again, his expression so open and hopeful it made Kallus' heart ache, reminiscent of a man watching from the shore as his lover sailed over the horizon.

Alexsandr blushed faintly and reached to comb his fingers back through his hair again, charmed by Garazeb's fumbling proposal. He smiled, and hoped that Lasat and Cathar held similar mannerisms as he met that earnest gaze with a slow, soft blink.

"I'd be delighted to, Garazeb."

"I-I..umm.." Zeb gulped, and moved his hand out from behind his back. He held a small bunch of yellow bloom plants within his curled fingers. "I bought yer flowers..? I heard it was a human thing, an' 'Bean helped me pick em out..." Garazeb made a low, thrumming noise in his throat, and hid his face briefly behind the pretty tube flowers he had chosen; yellow, with a delicately frilled edge, "They kinda reminded me o' you?"

Alexsandr breathed an enamoured huff of laughter, gentle and delighted. He couldn't say who 'Bean' was, but they certainly had an eye for colour. The delicate petals held a sweet, natural perfume and he couldn't help himself from bringing them close to sniff. He uttered another little shuddering, pleased breath as the soft petals fluttered against his nose. 

"They're beautiful…thank you."

Zeb rubbed at the back of his neck bashfully.

Kallus laid the soft yellow flowers across his lap, safely out the way while he finished closing shop. He couldn't resist rubbing the pad of his thumb across the silky petals and trailing a fingertip across their little frill.

"I have an empty canister tall enough for them back home once I finish up here, if you don't mind the detour, that is?" Alexsandr flicked a small glance up from the corners of his eyes, tracking the minute twitches of the Lasat's ears.

Zeb nodded, ears rotating in a soft, sweeping motion. "Anythin' I can do?" He offered, shifting his weight from one strange foot to another.

Alexsandr hummed and chewed on his lower lip. "Take this over to the sink?" He asked, scooping his mug off the tabletop and holding it out; the ceramic still warm from his morning's caf. 

Claws tapped against it's sides, and Kallus felt the heat radiating from Garazeb's thick skin hidden deep beneath all that soft, purple fur.

"It need washin'?"

Kallus hummed an affirmative, shuffling his tools away one handed, and felt warmth gently blooming in the birdcage of his chest at the creak of the pipes and the sound of the faucet turning on. He glanced up with a soft look.

The big Lasat shrugged, one ear lowered as he hastily dried his hands with a too small towel. "Hera doesn't like havin' a dirty galley kitchen, it's second nature now, I guess." 

The little swell of Alexsandr's cheek rose as he smirked. He drew a deep inhale through his nose and held it as he glanced around, mentally checking off the closing chores and slowly tapping his fingers one at a time as he counted them off against the right wheel of his chair.

He hummed shortly, and offered a slighter smile to his visitor. "Done. Shall we?"

Zeb grinned back eagerly, his sharp teeth glinting in the florescent station lights. 

Kallus pushed himself forward and thumbed the deactivation key for the overheads and with a low mechanic hum the lights powered down low. A sharp thrill sang through Alexsandr's veins as the large eyes of the Lasat stood at his side reflected and shone an eerie yellow. He slid the very top of his tongue across his bottom lip and wheeled forward.

The entrance to his workshop sealed behind them with a soft whoosh of recycled air, likely carrying the combined scents of everyday life and all those living theirs on Torus like a daily broadcast to those with sharper senses than a human's.

Garazeb steadily loped along beside him, easily keeping their relaxed pace with his alien, rocking gait with a low and happy purr making itself known from beneath his battlesuit's collar.

Alexsandr could see the man at his side fluff out his fur happily, surprise making the strands ripple of their own violation as Zeb took in swathes of bright colour.

The long hallways were all decorated with painted planets, stars, and little nothing's; from children's scribbles to extensive murals that stretched for almost a mile that had taken years to complete.

They passed two Zabraks hurrying down the corridor in the opposite direction, their arms filled with happily squeaking loth-cat kittens. The two brothers grinned, and one gave Kallus a not so subtle thumbs up.

"The style of yer beard is very handsome, facial hair is a bit of a thing fer my people." Zeb rumbled conversationally, politely ignoring or uncaring of the Rogue brother's antics, and drew his claws absently through his own precisely kept beard.

"Is it really?" Alexsandr blushed faintly and unconsciously mirrored him, stroking the tips of his fingers through the golden hair encompassing his mouth. "I had considered shaving it into muttonchops but I figured I'd look like some ridiculous core world pomp." 

The Lasat's rough laughter was all warmth and Alexsandr chuckled along, their combined voices weaving together like sweet music.

Garazeb blinked, ears flicking forward in contentment. "Yer'd look... different. Unique, I guess is the word."

Alexsandr laughed lightly, honey eyes crinkling at the corners as he looked up at Zeb as though he were made of the warmest sunlight. "Bad 'unique', or..?"

The Lasat studied his face for a moment, his smile widening with each passing beat of their hearts until one charming fang peeked into view. "Good! Well, good if yer kept yer hair loose, slick it back an' yer'd look like a wet loth-cat."

Alexsandr's broad shoulders curled forward and he snorted in his laughter, the noise broken by intermittent chuckles and sharp inhales. Garazeb grinned, as he had never heard a finer sound in many long dust seasons that he still counted time's passage in.

"Well," Kallus said slowly, rolling to a stop outside a wide door with his name and a number bolted on a plaque beneath Zeb's eye height. "This is my piece of the galaxy…" He said with a shy incline of his head, reaching up to key the lock open.

The plain door opened with a mechanical gasp and the sweet scent of plant life rushed out to greet them. Sure enough, sitting on the tops of shelves and neatly potted in corners, more leafy shrubs listed in the vent currents. 

Garazeb smiled, tilting his head with a short, sweeping flick of his ears. It was almost like living inside of one of those little terrariums Sabine has holos of. He turned his gaze back to the man who had repaired Chopper. His home, the Ghost, was filled with his little sister's murals and tags and doodles, and Kallus' was filled with life. 

A small coil of warmth oscillated in the depths of his gut as he smiled to himself; perhaps he'd ask Sabine to paint something green on the patch of empty wall above his bunk.

Alexsandr wet his lower lip coyly, and placed the bundle of flowers in his lap up on the table by the door.

An MSE droid wheeled around the table excitedly, merrily whistling his greetings to both of them as he scooted over. Alexsandr smiled, and reached down to pet along the length of the little droids casing. "Hello. I won't be staying long but I'll be back home again later."

Garazeb's ears flicked back and he held very still as the little repainted Imperial droid whizzed around his ankles. "Awe karabast," he swore, "always feel like 'm gonna step one one of these littl' bogans…" 

Kallus turned his smile on the man hovering awkwardly beside him. "He won't get underfoot, I do promise, he keeps me in good company." He smiled to himself as he unhooked his empty canteen from the back of his chair to return to its place beside the shallow sink in the back of the kitchenette. He fumbled through a lower cupboard for an old, dented canister and began to fill it with water.

The sound of metallic clanking and the rising fill of it's contents had Zeb's fur ruffling.

"Here." Kallus called across the meager distance, his voice as soft and deep as a winter stream. "Put those in this."

Both the Lasat's ears swept in a low arc, and he reached to take it. The cold seeping through the metal from the fresh water chilled the tips of his fingers, and he pretended not to notice Alexsandr's smirk.

That smirk softened into a gentle blink as he watched the hulking Lasat arrange the flowers in their makeshift vase so they all faced enough light, and coaxingly nudge any drooping blooms upright with the back of one knuckle. It already felt...right, having Garazeb collect things from around his modest home and add his own little touches as he went.

Enamoured disbelief had him bite down on his tongue as he watched the Lasat's ears slowly lay flat and the very tip of a rough, alien tongue peek into view past his lips. 

Alexsandr had to look away. He had read enough awful romances to know that falling in love from a single action was wholly untrue and a novel fantasy, but now? He cursed himself softly as in truth he couldn't keep his eyes away, and bit down on the tip of his own tongue as he watched Garazeb's tall ears quiver. 

Artistic touches finished, Zeb straightened up with a bright grin, his ears copying the action too and flicked back upright. 

He laughed at the odd look on Kallus' face that at that glowing and rambunctious sound, overflowed into pleasure at his company. Alexsandr tilted his head expectantly, golden hair slipping to brush against the corner of one equally gilded eye, and lead the way.

Zeb continued to laugh, now a low and rumbling chuckle, and called "What?" as he followed. He didn't get an answer, just a peek of a little pink tongue darting across soft lips to wet them.

It wasn't far to the free use canteen that had situated itself with a growing permanence at the junction of two wide corridors, the makeshift lounge evolving into a small and communally stocked cafeteria throughout the years Kallus had been a part of Torus. The indistinguishable chatter of a dozen different jovial conversations and the heavy scent of caf drew them in like a lighthouse's beacon for weary sailors. 

Garazeb's feline ears quivered giddily as he smelled something sweet wafting in the air and he drew a deep inhale through his loosely parted lips to taste it eagerly.

Alexsandr, deceptively perceptive, noticed and bit down on his lower lip to stifle a chuckle. Lasats had a sweet tooth, who knew?

Zeb took another deep and greedy lungful before turning his eager expression on the man beside him. "Hey, want me ter grab our drinks?" 

That smile turned to cold stone and basalt as ice and magma roiled together in Kallus' veins at a sudden explosion of outrage that scorched his insides. 

So that was how it would go. Again. 

He was neither useless or needed rescuing from his own body's limitations, as his other partners had felt as though their presence would do. He opened his mouth to spit out the same fire that ran up his throat however the look on the Lasat's face smothered his boiling temper instantly.

His companion's expression was honest and open, his question just that and not a pitying command. 

Alexsandr cleared his throat around the obstruction of shame, as Zeb's own expression dimmed into uncertainty. "Black and sweetened, please. I'm paying for both, at the very least." He added quickly, with a hard and insistent edge to his voice as he fished a handful of credit chips out of his pocket.

The little chips were swallowed by the size of Garazeb's palm. A small smile bid him farewell but it's warmth was overshadowed by the now wary look in the Lasat's eyes.

Once Zeb's back was turned, Alexsandr screwed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose until it hurt, berating his own incompetence and temper. The tangled drag of fingers through his hair swept the overgrown locks back from obstructing his eyes and worked to smooth his proverbial ruffled feathers.

He watched Zeb go, slipping around crowds and clustered tables to gather packets of sweetener and cream, and a pair of clean mugs.

A growing bloom of enamoured warmth settled beside his heart at the larger man's politeness and simple consideration, not so much the brutish and brainless muscle the Empire advertised of him in it's bounty postings.

Zeb paused, the tip of his tongue captive between his teeth again as he gauged which line for the caf machines themselves was the shortest.

A small group of twi'lek women, laughing and chatting all at once, waved him over to join them as they all waited for a machine to use. Kallus snorted softly, shaking his head as Zeb unconsciously stooped to stand a little shorter to not seem so imposing and lowered his ears to the sides, politely offering them to go first.

Alexsandr knew those women, all five were from the maintenance levels and each claimed to be sisters though none looked alike, almost like Zeb and his family of a twi'lek, an old droid, and two humans all together on a ship they called home. No wonder they got along.

He began to fiddle anxiously with his gloves when he heard the familiar sound of the machine shutting off.

"Order up!" Zeb grinned awkwardly as he placed their mugs between them on the table's top, one tooth peeking up into view. "Black an' sweetened."

Alexsandr smiled, a brief and equally awkward thing, and murmured his thanks as he scooted the heavy mug a little closer.

"Hey, uhh…" Zeb began, slipping into the opposite seat, the deep timbre of his voice hushed by uncertainty. "When I offered, I didn't mean- uh…" The stumbling raise and lower of his feline ears was almost comical, and Alexsandr let one brow tick upwards expectantly. 

"Kanan's -Hera's husband- he's blind, and-."

"You were being polite." Alexsandr finished for him, "I apologize for my outburst. And I'll sit here and berate myself for my headstrong foolishness until the caf goes cold." He confessed in an embarrassed rush as colour flooded his pale cheeks.

A different fang glinted as Zeb's lips pulled back in a silent growl. "I guess a lot of 'em before just saw the chair, huh." 

Kallus nodded with a low hum and a grimace crumpling his usually stoic features. His eyes flicked up suddenly in surprise as his companion muttered something that sounded like a curse in his own tongue, before shaking out his fur and chasing away that train of thought with a hard quirk of his ears. 

"Some people just need a good shakin'." He said pointedly, with an equally deliberate sideways look.

Kallus snorted, hiding a smirk behind his borrowed mug at the mental image of Zeb picking up and flailing the last man who thought his presence was everything, and even believed that saying "Just try!" to his face, and publicly, was a smart idea. 

The natural warmth of the man sat beside him and the fluttering of the tufted tips of his ears in the currents of the cycling air, settled Alexsandr's anxious heart and he ducked his head minutely to blow across the steaming brim of his caf.

After a smile and a slow sip, Zeb set his mug down and licked the taste of oversweetened caf from his fuzzy lips. "Soooooo...why droids?" 

Alexsandr blinked, eyes raising again and he thumbed the handle of his own mug. That question was a first.

"Well, they're…" He drummed his fingers rhythmically against the hot ceramic as he searched for the right words. 

_Treated awfully? Cast aside as though they mean nothing? Forgotten heroes from the clone war? People in their own rights..?_

"They have such unique personalities, all cheek and kindness, and it's like being a medic, of sorts. Only the blood and screaming comes from me when I catch my hand on some shattered casing if I happen to electrocute myself."

A low and rumbling laugh greeted his words, like far away thunder, and Alexsandr dipped his head to take a small sip of his caf around a smile.

He tamed his expression back towards calm neutrality, and ran his tongue over his lower lip. "So. Why _aren't_ you an Imperial tax collector?"

Now, it was the Lasat's turn to duck into his broad shoulders. 

_Ah_. Alexsandr thought with a victorious upward curl of the very corners of his lips as Garazeb's slow smile had one fang show. _A point to me_.

"Well…" Zeb scraped his claws through the short fur behind his head. "We are, sort of. We, uh, 'tax' the empire fer everything they've stolen that we can carry, an' get it ter people who need it more." 

Zeb snorted and shook his head, feline ears swiveling a little with the motion. "Can't believe we're talkin' about _taxes!"_ His short nose wrinkled and he spat the word out his mouth as though it were poison.

Kallus laughed suddenly, hiding a small snort behind his fingers. "That's what happens when you surpass the age of thirty." 

"Karabast, let's go back a couple o' decades, what's yer favourite colour? M-mine's- what!?" He turned his laughter on Kallus, watching through crinkled eyes at the human's softly muscled shoulders shaking in the immense effort of holding in his raucous laughter.

They had to look away from each other to stifle their childish giggling, one flash of green colliding with gold would set the right back off again. It took greater willpower than either of them had to not look back to steal glances at each other nonetheless.

Alexsandr tried to swallow his giddiness down with a sip of his drink. He hummed a cheerful noise around his mouthful of caf, swallowed, and set the mug back down with a heavy tap. "This is the first date I've ever been on where all the questions haven't been incredibly insensitive, and about my legs."

"D-date?" Zeb's fur rippled and his ears lowered shyly. "Uh-I… Yeh I... I'd like ter date yer…" He mumbled, ears slowly rising, and a hopeful little sparkle shining in his viridescent green eyes.

Kallus chuckled at the big Lasat's suddenly returning shyness. 

"You're rather charming, you know. If I may..?" He asked, one hand raised in polite question to softly stroke one of those flicking ears.

Zeb purred quietly, just loud enough for Alexsandr to hear and be charmed, and ducked his head for the human's clever fingers to reach.

"Oh my, those really are quite soft…"

That purr rumbled louder, reverberating and sweet, and Alexsandr found himself smiling freely. 

"Stars, you are handsome." He breathed, teasing the fluffy tip of one of the Lasat's ears with the pad of his thumb.

Zeb's relaxed and dozy expression changed to shock in the time it took for his heart to beat once and he shot backwards so fast the chair he sat in rocked back onto two legs. 

A small Lothalian boy had appeared at their table and was glaring at him.

"Oh! Hello Ezra," Kallus smiled and lowered his hand back to cup his mug of caf, entirely unshaken by the child's sudden appearance. "Are your mother and father here too?"

The boy didn't answer, he instead stared straight into Zeb's eyes, unwavering.

Alexsandr just chuckled and ruffled Ezra's untidy hair. "Would you like some juice, my boy?"

That got him one shallow nod.

His golden eyes flicked over to Zeb, who remained frozen still with his tall ears shocked up straight like a droid's antenna.

"He doesn't bite, Zeb." Kallus smirked as he backed up from the table. The Lasat didn't look at all reassured.

"Karabast, _are yer sure?"_ He wasn't sure what to do with a human kit staring him down and so he held very still except for his ears flattening anxiously.

After another few unbearably tense moments, Zeb swiped his tongue across his lower lip in an anxious motion he had picked up from his human family, and cleared his throat to speak. "...H-" 

That first lurch of noise was all that slipped past his lips, as Ezra bared his sharp little teeth and growled.

Garazeb almost fell backwards out of his seat. He didn't have to hold his ground alone for long, as Alexsandr returned after only a minute with a carton of shuura juice balanced in his lap.

"Here you are, Ezra. Can you manage with the straw?" He asked with a slight tip of his head as the little boy stabbed feebly at the foil top of the cylindrical carton.

The slow motion of the Lasat's ears returning to their comfortable position caught Alexsandr's attention, and their eyes met over the boy's head, expressions softening as their gazes locked with the same gentleness as bashful lovers interweaving their fingers, hidden from view.

That contentment lasted only a moment, as something behind Kallus drew Zeb's gaze and had his mighty shoulders droop.

Kallus raised one angular brow and followed the path of the Lasat's gaze over his shoulder. He caught the movements of a young girl in vibrantly painted Beskar armour, waving to Zeb within his peripheral. She might have been Mandalorian, but all the Mandalorians Kallus had met would rather sell their weaponry than remove their unique helmets.

He sighed through his nose, a deep furrow creasing his heavy brow. "I... gotta go, I guess."

Zeb sighed again as the corners of Alexsandr's mouth turned downward, and he reached to delicately hook the human's strong fingers over the side of one of his own. Alexsandr's sudden look of surprise had him click his tongue softly, and he leaned forward to rub Kallus' knuckles against the short fur that covered his cheek.

"I'll...see yer around?" The Lasat asked, hopeful.

"I'll be here, rebel." Alexsandr's lips quirked around the word. The nearest sun could have imploded and he wouldn't have cared as Garazeb's heavy brow raised to brighten his forlorn expression and shine all the way into the very depths of his viridescent eyes. One last flash of a smile blessed him before their parting, and a giddy sweep of tall feline ears waved goodbye as Zeb stood and answered his foundling sisters insistent beckoning.

Kallus watched him go as far as he could turn without bumping his chair into Ezra. The foundling siblings were just close enough for him to hear the first whisper of their conversation, and to catch the teenager's eager whisper of _''Did he like the flowers?''_

The little Lothalian boy next to him slurping on his juice broke Alexsandr's trance.

"I don' like him." Ezra scowled, watching them leave through the curtain of his unruly hair. "He smells funny."

"Ezra Bridger!" Kallus scolded with a bright and surprised laugh. "He does not smell."

The boy wrinkled his nose, and squirmed away to complain petulantly. "Now he's made _you_ smell." 

Alexsandr's disbelieving, snorting laughter echoed around the cafe hall.

*

_Lieutenant Kallus coughed and spluttered, the sound of his own wheezing breaths seemingly eerily far away as though he lay in a great void of nothingness beside the pitched ringing in his ears._

_The tops of the trees swayed far above, thin trunks warped and cracking from the fires that belched thick plumes of smoke into the night air. He coughed again, his throat burned just like those trees._

_Sound returned in a great rush and Alexsandr almost wished the silenced whistling had continued, anything was better than snapping flames and screams of the dying._

_His blaster lay within reach, he just had to...had to…_

_He couldn't move._

_Wide eyes turned back to the skies as it began to rain, trickling down from the corners of his eyes to wash the grime from his face in two thin streaks._

_"Sasha? Sasha!"_

_Alexsandr blinked the rain away to see one fellow trooper skid on their knees to reach his side and wrench their helmet off. Atticus' boyish face was bared to the orange light of the spreading fires, his green eyes just as wide as Kallus' own._

_"Sasha can you hear me? You're alright, you're all in one piece-!"_

_Kallus swallowed thickly around his heart trying to frantically beat it's way up and out of his throat. "Att-Atticus, I-I can't…"_

_Horror widened the other academy graduate's eyes and paled his face._

_"Kark…" He whispered. Alexsandr watched the other boy's jaw clench, trying to keep the terrified bile down. "Sasha, can you feel my hands? Can you feel-?_

_No hands. Everything just felt...cold._

_It began to rain harder, blurring Kallus' vision. "No…" He whispered, his voice a breaking whimper. "Atticus, I don't want to be here…"_

_Atticus swallowed, and raised both hands to Kallus' shoulders, one sliding higher for a thumb to brush the edge of the Coruscanti boy's jaw._

_"It's going to be okay, Sasha, you're going to be fine. I'm going to get you home, we're going to go home, I promise, I-"_

_A shout drew their attention, and what colour remained in Atticus' cheeks drained away. He scrambled to his feet, fumbling for Kallus blaster to aim at the monster stalking towards them through the fog of the artillery fire and the shadows cast by a moonless night._

_"S-stay back!" Atticus shouted, his voice still hoarse from the smoke. "We have you surrounded!"_

_The rough laugh that carried low across the distance in response to the boy's threat made Kallus' teeth chatter._

_" 's that so, boy?"_

_There was no other warning before attack. The Partisan was fast, a blur of striped fur and shadow as he cut through the wounded who had enough strength to get their feet under them, and headed straight for them._

_Atticus fired twice, the blaster shaking in his hand, but neither shot landed. The last noise Alexsandr ever heard from his friend was a whimper, as one huge, clawed hand squeezed shut around his throat and lifted his feet from the ground._

_The blaster clattered among the detritus and debris, and Atticus choked violently in the Lasat's grip. The tips of his boots scuffed against the dirt._

_"Nighty night, Imp…" The Lasat sneered, foul breath ruffling Atticus' brown hair. The monster turned it's luminous yellow eyes on Kallus, and grinned…_

Alexsandr jolted awake and scrambled away on his elbows until the backs of his shoulders slammed against the wall above his bunk.

Sweat gleamed on his bare skin, shining in the night mode lighting, and his chest heaved in search of greedy lungfuls of clean air. Kallus raked a pale hand through his sweat damp and tangled hair, the knots ensnaring his trembling fingers. It had grown out long, long enough to brush against his cheekbones if he combed it the right way.

It took a few moments for the world to right itself amidst his frantic panting and coughing, but after the dream haze lifted he recognized the musical sounds of Tooka beeping up at him, a canister of water held kindly within the little droid's grabbers.

"Th-thank you, Tooka." Kallus gasped as he reached for it, his breath still coming in short, shuddery fits.

The cap put up a fight against his shaking fingers and it took a few moments of muttered cursing before he could gulp down half the canister with desperate haste, wanting nothing more than to wash away the acrid bitterness of smoke from his throat. Stray rivulets dribbled messily down his chin to splash onto his chest, the cold of the water shocking him further from the ravenous clutches of his nightmare.

Cooler and calmer, Kallus hauled his protesting body the rest of the way up to sitting, and maneuvered his legs over edge to dangle his feet above the ground. 

"Don't worry, I'm not getting up." He smiled in reassurance at the little MSE droid warbling in concern down below.

Tooka beepled up at him questioningly, rocking backward and forward on it's wheels as it's binary voice whistled high. Up?

Shadowed golden eyes rolled, glistening affectionate in the half light, and Alexsandr reached to scoop the little droid up off the floor.

"Up you come, Tooka…" His voice strained with shortened breath and the stretch to reach that far. The mattress dipped slightly at his hip under the droid's weight.

"Now don't get comfortable up here," Alexsandr said sternly, as though his companion were it's namesake. "It's only for tonight…"

Tooka warbled cheerfully in response and Kallus pursed his lips around a traitorous smile, as he knew the little droid well enough to know when it was humouring him for it's own amusement.

He shook his head, and gently took the discarded sleepshirt the MSE droid had pinched in it's grabber and tugged within his reach pointedly. Soft fabric whispered over his head, tousling his grown out hair, and settling to cover the discoloured skin and old scars that laced across the expanse of his back.

Tooka continued to tug at the soft cotton hem until Alexsandr chuckled quietly and shuffled down to lie back. The little droid purred and rolled up to nuzzle under the crook of his elbow, rumbling a little louder at the sleepy brush of Kallus' fingertips over the back of it's casing. 

Kallus sighed one last, deep shudder and blinked, trying to banish the phantom visions about tops of blackened trees and coal tasting air.

"I'm alright…" he whispered, to the droid, the ceiling, and himself. "I'm all in one piece…"


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the smut chapter, again if this isn't your jam, jump to the next one. 
> 
> Have fun!

The weeks absently drifted by as they were like to, the rebel and the lodestar keeping comm contact whenever they could. It made Alexsandr's nights less lonely when Tooka powered down, and Garazeb would fall asleep curled protectively around his commlink, much to the amusement of his little adoptive family.

It didn't take much in the way of digging for Alexsandr to find out that the Spectres were infamous back among the civilized parts of the galaxy, well loved by the oppressed and despised by the jackboots. Romantic in a way, just like the shining heroes who fought evil dragons in the books Alexsandr had taken to reading little Ezra whenever the boy dropped in, only sometimes metaphorically.

Alexsandr smiled, chin resting on the heel of his hand and blinked, slow and hazily, through the rising steam from his only slightly stained mug.

An unexpected knock at the door drew Kallus from his idle and smitten thoughts. 

He set down his half full cup of spiced tea and pushed himself over to answer, unlocking the door to see the very man he'd been dreaming of waiting on the other side.

Kallus' entire form brightened at the sight of his far away, someone. "Garazeb!" 

The Lasat grinned wide and knelt to embrace him warmly.

"I asked Hera if we could come back, yer all I've been able to think about." The Lasat said in a heated rush. He licked his lips and swallowed around the words in his mouth. " 'Lex, I…"

Alexsandr silenced the other man with a thumb gently resting over his plush lips.

"And I have been thinking of you. I want you, Garazeb Orellios, if that is what you wanted to proposition…"

Zeb nodded, eagerly despite his shyness, a slow smile spreading across his handsome face and lighting up the vibrant green of his eyes.

Their kisses started soft. A plush and pliant sealing of lips and the tangling of fingers through facial hair and cupping newly familiar jaws.

Alexsandr moaned, breathily and ragged already, with a short huff through his nose, lost among the taste of his lover's tongue. He angled his head just so, for his grown out hair to brush the high ridge of the Lasat's nose and to smooth one hand higher to curl his thumb and forefinger around the base of one of those enchanting, feline ears. The other he dropped to fiddle blindly with the mechanism on his chair that allowed him to move both wheels at once. 

The little click of activation sounded and the ear between his fingers flicked. Zeb knew this move, and smiled against the human's kiss reddened lips, scraping lightly with a fang. He stepped forward, keeping their bodies close enough to feel the heat from his Sasha's body glow hotter with arousal as the other man shuffled them backwards with one hand.

The back of his chair thunked against the metal of the bunkframe when they could backpedal no further. 

"Do you want help?" Zeb rumbled, still close enough for the velvety skin of his lips to brush against Alexsandr's own as he spoke.

"No," He breathed with a small and decisive smile. "I need to do this myself." 

Zeb nodded and stepped back to give his lover some room.

Kallus flicked the wheel's brakes on locked, and raised both arms to pull himself up using the knotted bedsheet tied to the back rail of the bunk above like a rope. He had always refused to use a hoverchair, manual wheeling kept his upper body strength in practice. On some of his darkest and lonely days it felt as though that was all he had left. 

He adjusted his grip with a muttered grunt of exertion, and reached out with one hand to curl his fingers around one of the bars under the upper bunk and slowly eased himself down to sit on the edge of his mattress. 

He smiled shyly over at Zeb and wiggled his fingers. "Ta-da?" He dropped his face in his hands, traitorous pink flushing his cheeks and hiding his freckles from view. _"Why did I say that?"_

"Because yer cute." Garazeb laughed, loping across the distance between them to curl his huge hands over Kallus' shoulders and to rub his cheek into the pale ginger locks of the human's hair.

Zeb drew back after a moment, one feline ear lowered. "Does everything, um...work?" He gestured crudely at his crotch, to which Kallus just rolled his eyes. 

"No Garazeb, I just want you to aimlessly saw in and out of me while I finish this crossword puzzle. Yes, everything 'works' you dolt." He chuckled, smacking the Lasat affectionately on the shoulder. He shifted around to lie back, and shuffled backward up the bed on his elbows until they both had room to sprawl across the padded mattress. Zeb crawled on after him and followed Kallus up, prowling higher up the human's lithe body and deadweight legs.

Head now above the pillow, Alexsandr flopped back with a happy chuckle and a smile wide enough to crinkle the corners of his stardust eyes. Pale fingers reached to card through the thick bristles of the Lasat's facial hair, scratching along the line of Garazeb's jaw as he gazed up adoringly. "You can undress me, if you like..?" He purred, coy.

The pupils of Garazeb's eyes had blown wide and Alexsandr could see himself in their depths, hair in disarray and that cooling blush still staining his cheeks delicately pink.

A deep sound, low and guttural, shuddered it's way up the Lasat's throat as Zeb lowered his bearded chin dangerously close to Kallus' confined hardness, close enough to feel body heat through clothing and almost hear the rapid rush of the human's pulse.

"Yeah, I'd like…" Zeb rumbled slyly. With a flash of thick, pearlescent fangs, he ensnared the button on Alexsandr's trousers between his teeth and tugged playfully as he expelled a hot lungful of breath. He grinned as Kallus gasped, and as two clammy hands snatched closed around the back of his head.

His teasing movements and his lover's fitful squirming had worked Kallus' trousers a little way down his hips, exposing a strip of soft, heated skin dashed across one sharp hip bone. Garazeb eagerly nuzzled into that little opening, giddy to drink in the scent he had missed and feel the coarse, bristly hairs on the human's stomach against his cheek.

At Kallus' swallowed back whine for more, Zeb abandoned the indecent slide of the human's trousers to smooth leathery palms up his lover's twitching flanks, all the way up from his hips to his ribs. He growled around a toothy grin, freckled pale and lavender striped looked good together. Zeb splayed his huge, four fingered hands around those ribs and leaned up the rest of the way to claim Alexsandr's kiss bitten lips.

Together they managed to pull -or tear- Kallus' ruffled up shirt off in between hungry kisses and tossed it's remains away to be discovered the next morning. The stirrings of an appreciative rumble shook the thick fur covering Garazeb's chest, and the downward arrow of body hair that led from a faint dusting over Kallus' impressive pectorals to a thicker swath that began to curl over his belly and even lower. 

Zeb squeezed and stroked one huge hand between Alexsandr's legs and nipped teasingly on his lower lip, grinning against his lover's mouth at the feel of the growing hardness pressing back into his palm.

Kallus pulled his lips free and leaned his head back to hum deliriously at the feel of Zeb's palm cupping everything, and squirmed against his touch as much as he were able. "Get these off me, you brute…" He groaned petulantly, insistent arousal getting the better of him.

Zeb grinned. _Brute, huh?_ He pinned his lover back against the mattress with one hand planted on his heaving chest and a playful trill rolling off the vocals in his throat. He ducked low and prowled forward, sharp teeth flashing between the lustful shape of his lips. 

He held Kallus' glassy gaze as he rolled his hips in a tight circle, and felt warmth bloom beside his heart at those eyes flying wide before clenching shut at the feel of their most intimate parts thrusting against each other. Zeb purred, and rasped his tongue in a hot stripe up the stubble rough skin beneath Kallus' ear.

" 'm I a brute?" He rumbled, voice so low Alexsandr could feel it's timbre tremble through his chest.

"In the finest of ways-" Kallus gasped, clinging to him with strong and wanting hands. Zeb chuckled into the shadowy skin beside Kallus' angular jaw and nipped until the man beneath him began to squirm again.

"I gotcha, 'lex. This brute's gonna make yer see stars above yer bed. You jus' relax babe." He smiled a little wider at his human lover's enamoured chuckle, the noise quickly turning into a breathy sigh at the added sensation of the scrape of his fangs. 

"I can't tell if you're my salvation or damnation, but _kriff_ , whichever you are please-" Alexsandr smothered his helpless gasp into the soft tuft of royal purple fur beneath Zeb's ear and squeezed his eyes shut. _Stay_. The lonely voice imprisoned beneath his tongue cried, offering his heart for mercy. _Stay with me._ His whine became a heavy swallow, and he wrapped his arms further around Garazeb's mighty shoulders. "Just don't stop-!"

The caress of soft breath threatened to set a tremble in his fingers, and so did the feel of the Lasat above him gently rubbing their cheeks together. "I won't, Alexsandr…" Zeb began to purr. _I'm right here, and I'm stayin' put._ The sound whispered along with it's gentle thunder. 

Kallus rolled his head to the side searchingly and sealed their lips together with all the ferocity of the meeting of the sky with the rolling sea at the eager embrace of dusk. The fine fuzz that covered the Lasat's mouth tickled against his own as Zeb spoke quietly into the whisper of space between them. 

"Let's get this goin'. Yeah?"

Alexsandr's breathy agreement stirred the fur covering Zeb's cheeks. With a reassuring smile, Garazeb eased his lover's trousers down his hips and gently off his legs.

Kallus threw a freckled arm over his eyes as his cock sprang up in the absence of the restrictive fabric, already erect and eager for more attention. Garazeb couldn't help running his tongue over his plush and parted lips in want, the human's twitching length rosily flushed and glistened wet at the tip.

Zeb had seen his share of genitalia around the galaxy; in fine establishments meant for anonymous pleasure seekers, and accidentally colliding with a groggy Kanan stumbling out of the fresher in the early hours of the morning.

The clean scent of Alexsandr's skin and the musk of his arousal combined was strong enough to have his mouth water, and Zeb gave in to his baser instincts and -after a hasty nod of approval- lapped a stripe up the human's length. A punched out breath disturbed the air between them and Alexsandr peered from beneath the shadow cast by his forearm. 

A low purr awoke in the depths of the Lasat's throat and he rocked forward to gently rub the flat of his nose across the heated and silken skin his tongue had just caressed. Kallus smiled bashfully around another low gasp. 

An attractive dash of pink crossed his cheeks as Garazeb waited, head canted to the side and his vibrant eyes trained on Kallus' own, waiting for permission to move his legs apart. Alexsandr nodded, smile brightening and breathless, as Zeb gently raised one of his legs and tugged a few pillows from the pile on the top bunk to stack beneath the folded knee. Kallus had forgotten he even had that many pillows until they were piled softly beneath his spread legs, both bent and resting at comfortable angles. 

The cycling air currents tickled the exposed skin of his inner thighs and had the fine hairs there raise to stand on end as his body flushed with goosebumps. Garazeb's eyes shadowed with lust at the sight, getting the most intimate of views where he had settled between, his mighty shoulders bracketed by Kallus' legs.

"Kriff, this is- I feel filthy." Kallus breathed, reaching down to cover his hole.

Zeb purred his encouragement, and kissed the backs of the human's knuckles. "Yer look like a treat."

Kallus rolled his eyes and thunked his head back into his pillow. "Thanks…" His breath stuttered as Zeb gently moved his hand out the way and lifted his balls with the side of one huge finger.

Those beautiful green eyes raised to meet his own. "This okay?"

Alexsandr nodded earnestly but squeaked at the first touch of the Lasat's tongue. They laughed at the sound together, with Kallus' chuckling muffled around the knuckle he had jammed between his teeth.

"Sorry!" He gasped as his ticklish twitching subsided. "It, It's been…" 

" ' s alright." Zeb coaxed gently, a low purr soothing along with his words. "We'll go slow." 

He leaned back down, pausing to rub his cheeks against the soft skin between Alexsandr's thighs, and drew his tongue slowly over the human's hole with a low hum of satisfaction. Each steady lap over Kallus' entrance had him loosening, the warm and wet pressure dragging the tight muscle open. 

The man caught between Garazeb's mouth and his hands panted and squirmed futilely, his fluttering hands clenched tight into the bedsheets. The shallow dip of the Lasat's tongue reaching further inside had those same hands snatch up to curl around the bases of Zeb's feline ears in trembling need. The pinch of fingers had Zeb rumble low in his throat, and he spread Kallus' cheeks a little further to give himself more room to reach deeper still.

"I keep lubricant in the box beneath- _ah!_ \- in the drawer!" Kallus gasped fitfully, and mimed grabbing hands towards something off the side of the bunk. He hadn't touched himself this way in so long, and that revelation sent a flood of aching need and sweat prickling in a wave down from his shoulders to his navel.

He blushed at the nearby click of claws and the hiss of a hydraulic lock unlatching.

"This the stuff?" Zeb asked, waving a little bottle pinched between two fingers. He grinned at Kallus' audible gulp and the rasp of his bearded cheek against the bedding as he nodded intently, too far gone for embarrassment now. Garazeb sat back and swiped his tongue across his lips, passing the bottle off into the human's waiting hand to watch him prepare himself. 

Kallus wet his lower lip, teasing himself with the tip of one slippery finger and he curled his other hand around the inside of his thigh, fingertips pressing hard into the swell of cheek to hold himself open.

One finger had him whining softly, blushing pink and squirming down against his knuckles. _"Kriff-fuck!"_ He breathed only partly for show as his head fell back against the pillows, blinking his bleary eyes open into golden horizon line slits. 

A deep growl woke in the hollow of Garazeb's throat, and he was only dimly aware of the prick of his own claws sinking into his thighs at his lover's throaty groan as he began to shakily thrust that single finger in and out of himself, and the hard throb of arousal that sight and sound alone sent through him.

The gasped litany of his name falling from Alexsandr's soft lips at the stretch of a second finger threatened to undo him on the spot, and the scent of his own wetness flooded his senses.

Lewd, wet sounds rose pink into Alexsandr's cheeks as he thrust and curled his fingers, crooking and beckoning in a way that made Zeb's arousal flare at the thought of those fingers doing the very same between his own thighs, slipping inside and teasing his sheath until he noisily made a slippery mess of himself.

One twitching hand reached forward, and Zeb brushed the tips of his clawed fingers against the back of Kallus' hand, scraping over the lightly haired skin teasingly beneath the enticing swell of his arse.

The push of Zeb's fingertips against the backs of his knuckles urging his fingers deeper still had Kallus' eyes rolling, and for the first time in too long stars glittered behind his eyes and in the empty space above his bunk.

"Please-Zeb!" 

Zeb leaned in further and growled, low and possessive, fangs shining in the station's lights. "Please, what?"

Alexsandr swallowed, and shallowly licked his lips to wet them once again, parched from his wanton panting. "Fill me?" He whispered, ardent and hopeful.

"Yeah…Yeah 'm gonna…" Zeb's voice was the deepest he'd ever heard it, he felt the shake of the Lasat's vocals through his chest and deep within his gut. "Jus' need ter loosen yer up a little more, an' get this off…"

Zeb leaned in to brush their checks sweetly together before crawling backwards off the bunk, grinning as Kallus' golden eyes tracked his movements. Suddenly playful, he drew himself up to his full height and reached down to squeeze the damp fabric between his legs with a lewd grin and an upward tick to his brows. That grin became a kind chuckle at Alexsandr's soft, needy whine and the widening of those beautiful star cluster eyes. Zeb hooked his fingers into the neck of his battlesuit and thumbed for the sealing tab.

The soft growl of the zip shivered in the space between them, and the folds of fabric parted to reveal a chest covered in plush, thick fur, thick enough for Alexsandr to lose his hands in. He whined, squeezing his eyes shut tight at the thought of clinging to fistfuls of that same fur as Zeb moved inside him with whatever he was about to reveal, and keened at the twitch of the fingers still buried to the knuckles between his thighs. He shakily resumed the thrusting of his own slick fingers. 

Kallus whimpered at the depth of the Lasat's voice, sweet and coaxing all for him. "Look at me, babe." 

He cracked his eyes open, hooded gaze tracking Garazeb's hands as they began to move again. Slower this time, deliberate in their teasing.

Zeb languidly shrugged his shoulders loose and hooked his clawed thumbs into the loosened folds of fabric to wriggled his hips free from his battlesuit's confines. 

Across the room, Kallus' throat went dry.

Garazeb curled his thumb and a finger enticingly around the deflated bulge at the base of his cock, fingertips teasing the wet slit of his sheath and he gazed over at his wanting lover with a leery flash of his fangs.

Alexsandr's throat worked around a heavy swallow at the sight as the room began to tilt. "Oh stars, you're big…"

The Lasat's ears lowered shyly and he slipped his fingers the rest of the way around his thick, softly spined shaft. "Hopefully 'm not too big fer yer?" 

Kallus chuckled dizzily, regaining his mental balance with a hand sweeping through his hair. "With enough lubricant and perseverance, my dear, anything becomes achievable."

Confidence stoked once again into a full and blazing flame, Zeb kicked his feet free and swaggered back toward Alexsandr's bed with an enticing sway to his narrow hips as he slunk towards him, a deep purr reverberating within his chest. That roguish bravado stalled again suddenly, and Zeb reached to rub at the back of his neck.

"I've, uh, got a barrier with me if yer need me to..?"

"I…" Alexsandr licked his dry lips, and Zeb mirrored the little action subconsciously. "I'm clean, and stars, I want to feel this…"

He reached out across the distance left between them and wrapped his lubricant slippery fist around Zeb's girth, feeling those alien spines flatten under his touch and tickle in the spaces between his fingers.

Those stardust eyes flicked up to meet Garazeb's heated, viridescent gaze. "Are you..?"

"Yeah." Zeb rumbled, voice so low the fur on his broad chest quivered. "Yeah babe, 'm all good."

Kallus nodded readily and leaned back to lay himself flat, waiting. Those golden eyes held their hungry gleam as he tracked the Lasat's movements from their tipped corners, and the hand he had extended, still shiny with lube and his lover's natural slick, crooked two fingers to entice him closer.

Zeb crawled up onto the narrow bed once more, slinking up Alexsandr's bare body. The soft brush of his fur left Kallus gasping, oversensitive and ready for more at last.

"You're Beautiful....O-oh kriff me…" He whimpered, rolling his head to the side. Garazeb made use of the extra room, and ran the flat of his nose up the side of Kallus' neck, drinking in sweet lungfuls of his scent. Zeb's ears folded shyly, and his purr came louder.

Alexsandr's head ground back into the pillow at the feel of the Lasat's softly furred thighs meeting the smooth backs of his own, and at the slippery tip of Garazeb's cock resting against the loosened muscle of his rim. 

"Ready?" Zeb murmured softly.

"Yes! Kriff- darling, I'll perish if I have to wait for you another second."

Zeb's ears lowered shyly at the freely uttered endearment. He could count on one hand the beings he had taken to bed who had called him something similar, two he lived with. He took a moment to bask in the feeling of being adored, and let a gentle purr rumble a little louder within his chest. He ducked low to nip at Kallus' jaw, and latched gently onto the human's earlobe, tugging and growling as he slowly pressed his hips forward. 

Zeb shuddered, the fur along his spine prickling at Alexsandr's breathy words of encouragement tickling his ear. 

Freckled hands migrated up from the Lasats shoulders to cling to the top of the pillow beneath his head in a desperate grip, head tossed to one side and panting along noisily with the inching push of the Lasat's cock past his rim.

The deflated spines caught against the oversensitive skin at his entrance and that sensation alone had all his breath and a shout rush from his lungs.

"Wait-wait! Zeb!" He begged with a strained cry.

Garazeb stilled instantly, his tall ears flattening and his eyes wide. "Are yer okay? Have I hurt yer?"

Alexsandr released his death grip on the pillow with one hand to tenderly stroke his thumb over the Lasat's curved cheekbone, steadying himself with the feel of soft fur. "N-no love, I just…" He swallowed and brushed his fingers down to hold on tight to Garazeb's shoulder. "I just need a minute."

Zeb rumbled gently, and rubbed the velvety fur of his cheek into Kallus' weathered palm. "Yeah o'course. As many as yer need, babe." 

That crooked smile had returned, the one that stole Alexsandr's heart along with his breath, and one of the Lasat's lavender ears flicked.

Unsteady breath shivered past Kallus' trembling lips, and that handsome, kiss reddened bow tipped up at the corners in a smile that showed the blunt edges of his teeth. _"Babe?_ That's the second time you've called me that."

" 's that okay?" 

"More than okay…" He whispered against Garazeb's softly slack mouth as he coaxed his lover forward, and rubbed the tip of his nose over Zeb's cheek.

They held each other for a few beats of their hearts, almost too sweet in their gasping intimacy for the human not to blush further, and breathed in each other's breath as Alexsandr's muscles began to relax further.

"Alright, okay…" He gasped, pale cheeks flushing darker.

Zeb pressed his face into the shelf of Kallus' collar bone, lapping up a heated stripe of musky sweat as he sheathed himself the rest of the way inside the human's body.

"K-kriff!" Kallus gasped, voice tight and pitched high. "Stars you're big…"

Zeb chuckled, though his own deep voice sounded no better. "Heh, so yer've said already…"

Alexsandr cupped the Lasat's angular face, the curve of Zeb's cheekbones fitting perfectly against the lines of his thumbs. Garazeb rocked forward until their foreheads connected with a gentle bump, and rubbed soothingly as Kallus whined a series of whispery little moans and tight lipped noises, now filled just shy of bursting.

"Kriff-!" He whimpered, reaching up to wrap his arms tightly around the Lasat's neck, fingers curling into thick, purple fur.

Zeb groaned, and shivered at the feeling of Kallus' thumbs sweeping through his striped fur, jerkily soothing them both as they adjusted to each other.

"Yer okay? Still with me up there?" He smiled around his own ragged gasping at the feel of the man beneath him unwittingly rubbing their cheeks together in a little nod.

Kallus' hand followed him searchingly as he leaned back, with a pitched sound rolling up his throat. _"Come back..?"_ That little whine said as the human continued to questioningly pet the tips of his fingers through ruffled, lavender fur.

"Don' worry, 'lex," Zeb rumbled, a breathy chuckle low enough for the other being to feel with those usually clever fingers. "I'm not goin' far." 

The Lasat slowly sat back and slipped gentle hands under Kallus' spread legs, reaching to tuck the crooks of his elbows under the humans knees to hoist his hips up a little higher. The easy pull and spread left Alexsandr gasping and flushing pink down to his chest.

"There yer are!" He grinned, as Alexsandr blinked himself back to conscious thought and caught up with the moments he had missed under pleasures thrall.

"Fu-uck, kriff your cock is going to ruin me." He keened, tossing his head to the side to land amongst the golden cloud of his sweat darkened hair.

Zeb laughed breathily, his own voice faring no better than his lover's at Alexsandr's throbbing tightness and he rubbed reassuringly at the human's trembling flank. His first stilted little thrust was just enough to rock the shoulders of the man beneath him deeper into the pillow, and as small as that action was, the volume of the impassioned cry that tore itself from Alexsandr's parted lips was astronomical. 

A sudden revelation had the hairs along his spine stiffen; Alexsandr would be a noisy lover.

He continued his movements, steadily thrusting slow but deep as a series of sharp noises and half words fell from Alexsandr's lips, and Zeb lost himself in the depths of the human's golden eyes as they rolled upward to follow stars that only he could see.

One hand fisted into the sheet beside them as Kallus came back to himself and rolled his chin back down to fix their gazes together. He shakily raised the other to curl around the side of Zeb's neck, holding on just beneath his jaw and with enough reach left to slip up to tenderly cradle a furry cheek or snatch into a tight fist around a broad and muscular shoulder.

That enticing blush caught Garazeb's eye and an appreciative growl rumbled to life in the depths of his chest. He leaned down in pursuit to lick at that continuously descending flood of pink to rasp the rough flat of his tongue over one of Alexsandr's delightfully pebbling nipples.

The allure of those soft and heaving pectorals became too much, and Zeb curled forward to nip at the soft skin beneath the swell of muscle. The man under his mouth squirmed and moaned, torn between the urgent need to press closer and twist away.

" _H-hnn-uh!_ Zeb!" Kallus gasped, each syllable cutting off short from having the breath thrust out of him. He screwed his eyes shut and tossed his head to the side when the pleasure peaked too high, curling his fingers tighter into his lover's thick fur.

Zeb rasped his tongue up the exposed side of Alexsandr's neck, grazing over rough stubble and the thundering pulse beneath, jumping ever faster along with each hard snap of his hips.

Kallus groaned as he rolled his chin downward, little pitched, keening grunts of pleasure escaping through his parted lips as he watched Zeb's length plunge rhythmically inside him. " _Guhh_ \- Zeb! You, you f-feel so-!"

"So d'you… Babe, yer squeezin' down so tight-" He broke off with a strained moan, muffled against the damp hair behind Alexsandr's ear.

Shaking hands gripped the thick fur of Zeb's shoulders tightly, fistfuls that pulled with each sharp buck of the Lasat's hips. The little stings did nothing to dampen the lust that scorched him to his core, and had fresh rivelets of sweet smelling and viscous slick rolling down his spined shaft from his slit. He growled, teeth travelling up the side of Alexsandr's neck and nipping along with every pulsing clench of those muscles around him.

His teeth caught a sensitive patch beneath Kallus' jaw, hidden by thick facial hair and dappled with freckles like Lasan's sunlight through the orchard trees in the height of it's summer months, and his lover smelled just as intoxicatingly heady as those cornflower blossoms that grew to be the size of his palm. Zeb's hips slammed forwards once again as Alexsandr's hands suddenly slapped down to fumble and knot his fingers into the striped fur in the dip of the Lasat's lower back, desperately urging him deeper to find that right spot.

Deep, guttural noises filled the room and echoed back at them, the sounds of sex and panting slipping past the moans tangling in their throats.

" 'm…'m gonna knot yer…" Zeb groaned, ears pulling back. The sound Kallus made was stuck between sheer ecstasy and disbelieving elation.

" _Knot?!_ Garaz-zeb, my love! Oh, never say that again I beg you, I'll come on the spot!"

Zeb laughed around a tight groan. "Don'- don'cha want ter hear about how it'll feel?" The Lasat growled deviously, grinning through the stars bursting into colour behind his eyes.

Kallus whimpered, and clung to him tighter, spine arching.

" 's gonna fill yer up good, so good." Zeb groaned, pinching the delicate shell of the human's ear between the points of his fangs until he felt the man beneath him shudder. "Yer won't know which what up is anymore when it stretches yer wide an' plugs yer full..." 

"Do yer want ter feel that?" The big Lasat continued, how own voice succumbing to a rolling sound as his own orgasm began to back him towards the precipice of pleasures fall. "Full of my cum and cock, all scrambled up an' fucked out?"

To Kallus, mind sex addled or not, that sounded like the finest idea in the galaxy. "Please! Please, darling!" He begged with a broken shout. "I want you to- _aah!"_

The fur between the Lasat's shoulders began to prickle and raise to stand up on it's ends. " 'm gon- 'm gonna fill yer right up…" 

"Yes!" Kallus moaned, eyes closing tight as his body began to tremble.

Those golden eyes snapped open wide and he stared up at the underside of the top bunk, unseeing, as his breath stuttered past slack lips. A pitched whimper escaped those same lips at the feeling of each and every hard throbbing pulse of the Lasat's cock steadily filling him up with his seed. "Z-Zeb, I can feel-!" 

No words came then, just a drawn out and lilting snarl and the sharp pinch of teeth around the meat of Kallus' shoulder.

The new stretch was just shy of too much, and if Alexsandr had any conscious thought left he would have been embarrassed to hear his own pleasure drunk hiccupping in the wake of taking the thick swell of his knot.

Shallow gasps and keening were the only sounds he had left, muffled only slightly from burying his face in the fur of Garazeb's neck in attempt to silence himself and drink in the heavy scent of his lover as the room began to dizzily twirl around them both, the rip of his claws through bedding cutting through the vertigo.

They held each other close as time around them resumed to ticking by.

"Stars, that was…" Alexsandr gave up on words in favour of a breathless laugh of bliss and relief. Garazeb's worn out chuckle stuttered breathlessly along with it, his grasp of words slowly returning. 

"Yer know, 's gonna be one helluva mess when I pull out." He mumbled into sweat shiny skin.

A low laugh shuddered from Kallus' kiss bruised lips. "What?" He teased, leaning back to fix his lover with a lazy smirk. "You want a holo for later?" 

The sound the Lasat made was caught between a laugh and a groan, an exhale that he pressed into the sweat damp skin of Alexsandr's neck. "Don' tempt me, babe…"

"Uhn- stick around for round two, and I'll have you dripping a mess and seeing hyperspace behind your eyes." Kallus chuckled fiendishly, dragging his appreciative gaze over impressive muscle and ruffled fur. 

Garazeb's ears tried to valiantly swat away his embarrassment at being so openly admired. He knew he looked good by his people's standard's; his bright eyes and dark stripes often caught the eyes of his own kind. The rest of the galaxy too often bought into the Imperial way of thinking, even unwittingly, that he were a large, lumbering oaf with a face that scared many away.

"Karabast, yer look…" Garazeb murmured, lapping up the taste of the other man from his lips as he took in that heaving chest, and his own teeth marks littering that scruffily haired expanse.

Kallus swept a still trembling hand through his damp and tangled hair, wiggling his fingers free from the clinging strands with a disgruntled grimace. Zeb couldn't not laugh if his life depended on it, and nuzzled in closer. 

"Yer daft…" He chuckled into the soft hair of Alexsandr's cheek. 

Kallus snorted along, finally extracting his fingers and scratched behind the Lasat's lazily flicking ear. "I look like I've just been ravaged by the galaxy's most handsome Lasat, perchance?" 

"Somethin' like that." Zeb purred, rubbing their cheeks together with a contented smile and warmth radiating from his chest. They held each other as their hearts frantic beating calmed, sweet words whispered again skin, and fur, and teethed into ears.

Garazeb's knot deflated enough to withdraw and Kallus moaned lowly, feeling suddenly too empty as his partner's length slid free at last.

Zeb growled against his neck, untangling his claws from the torn bedding and reached down to spread Alexsandr's cheeks with his thumbs, eager to watch his own flood of semen dribble out onto the bed sheets beneath them.

" 'm going to have to clean that up…" Alexsandr drawled, peering up at him through one lidded eye, the other still clenched shut in a grimace.

Zeb rubbed their cheeks together, his thin nostrils flaring appreciatively at their combined scents. "Nah, I gotcha."

He leaned in for one more sweet kiss before shrugging the human's legs from his shoulders to lay him comfortably flat, and hauled himself up onto unsteady legs, ears flicking as Alexsandr snorted behind him for wobbling.

Kallus' home was efficiently compact; seating, kitchen, a bed, and a fresher, just enough for a man, his wheelchair, and his adopted MSE droid who had so many cracks in it's casing the little machine resembled a prairie cat from Lothal to call home. And flowering plants, the leafy little life forms merrily taking over what wall space remained untouched. 

A little cluster of succulents sat beside the sink. Zeb snorted, and blinked slowly at the little things, imagining Alexsandr's routine included bidding all the plants a good morning.

He caught a glimpse of his reflection in Alexsandr's low mirror, fur mussed and ruffled, with his pinprick pupils blown wide enough to almost eclipse the viridescent green that usually blinked back at him. Zeb grinned at his mirror self, and tore himself away to soak a neatly folded washcloth in warm water before he could surrender to the temptation of imitating Kanan's finger guns at himself. 

His ears swivelled and he grimaced at the feel of water soaking into his fur, running down the insides of his thighs in fast little rivulets as he wiped at the mess between his legs. Satisfied, and a little uncomfortable, he doused the little cloth again under the tap and wrung out the excess, suspecting he'd be tutted at for leaving a trail of drips between the fresher and the bed. 

He ducked out of the little washroom to find Alexsandr smiling softly at him, one arm folded beneath his head where he lay.

Zeb purred sweetly as he crossed the room, climbing unsteadily into bed again at his lover's feet. He leaned in close to rub his cheek against Kallus' soft thigh, eager to plant his scent wherever he could reach, and hold the human's own scent within the thick bristles of his beard for long after this night spent together. Gently, Zeb swiped the warm cloth between Alexsandr's still spread legs, dutifully cleaning up the mess they had left of each other. 

Zeb shuffled in close, dumping the soiled cloth on the nightstand, and smiled at the feel of his lover's hands holding on to any part of him they could reach. He purred at the sight of one of Kallus' freckled hands curling around his thick forearm, his own fur sifting through the human's spread fingers.

Alexsandr chuckled, and inclined his head to the rag and it's little puddle. "Now I'm going to have to clean _that_ up…" he teased playfully.

Zeb nipped at his bare shoulder. " 's just no winnin' sometimes." He grinned, thick fangs making themselves known.

Kallus smiled, warm and truly happy, content in the arms of the man he loved, gazing up into Garazeb's eyes so close they became one green blur. _We are not what the galaxy thinks of us..._

A soft purr woke in Garazeb's throat at the small noise of contentment Alexsandr made, his entire body loosening as he slipped towards sleep within the safety of his lover's mighty arms.

Ears flicking happily, Garazeb stretched forward to tuck the human's golden head beneath his chin. Equally gold eyes blinked up at him along with a gentle smile, as that man reached to caress his cheek, feeling the swell of it as Zeb smiled freely. A disarming little chuckle had Garazeb's heart blooming as that same hand scaled higher to scratch behind one of his softly flicking ears.

On the narrow table beside them and their little paradise, Zeb's comm unit flashed. 

After watching it flash a few more times, he sighed, ears drooping to lay flat at the inevitability. "Kal, I.. I gotta go." 

The sadness in those golden eyes was almost enough to overwhelm him, and the human's shining gaze looked as though the stars themselves were falling through his irises. 

"I know." His voice was quietly somber, and Alexsandr dropped his hand back to the mattress to tangle their fingers together. "Be safe. And come back to me...my dear."

Garazeb kissed his knuckles softly in aching farewell, and set his feet on the cold ground.


	4. Chapter 4

Alexsandr jolted awake as the room around him shook violently. 

He blinked hard, disoriented, and flailed for the bars of the top bunk with a surprised yelp and the entire station trembled once more.

"Tooka?!" He called, scrabbling blindly for his sweater to pull on over his sleep shirt.

The little droid whizzed toward him, whistling and beeping urgently.

"What..?" He asked, only half listening as he struggled his crumpled trousers on, catching frantic snippets of binary as he fumbled to dress himself quickly. 

_Ship…here...evacuation…Empire...hide!_

"Go, get to that ship. Go on, I'll catch up." He flashed his little companion what he hoped looked like a reassuring smile and combed his fingers through his sleep tangled hair to push it back away from his eyes. "I'll catch up, I promise. Go."

Tooka beeped, fast paced and anxiously, and zipped away so fast it's wheels squealed. 

Alexsandr's mouth set into a grim line. It had always been an eventuality; the Empire was never blind to any forms of opposition, not even a short range radio station on the cusp of unknown space.

He froze suddenly, breath coming in short, audible gasps as the station's overhead lights stuttered then powered off. Shadows stretched into long claws in the red glow of the emergency lighting. Alexsandr gulped and shook himself. He had no time to panic.

Steeling himself, he grasped the knotted sheet he used as a ladder and lowered himself carefully into his awaiting chair. In low power or lights completely off, Kallus had his route from bedside to quarters door memorized, he'd taken to navigating the rooms with his eyes closed and kindly hushing Tooka whenever the little droid beeped that he was getting close to accidentally striking his hand on a doorframe. Eventually, that little droid had understood as after all, they were both former Imperial refugees and there was no such thing as safety.

Kallus settled his legs and checked that his pack was still secured to the back of it, with a little enough of essential everything to last him. As long as he had known the Bridger's, he knew some day plastoid clad trouble would come to kick in their door in the name of tyrannical peacekeeping. 

He paused, staring back at the drooping flowers Garazeb had bought him, and the little home he had made all on his own, then fled.

Outside his door was silence, just silence. No voices, no footsteps, just nothingness. Kallus gulped, unsettled to the depths of his gut and pushed himself forwards.

That tugging sense of disquiet never abated as he journeyed through dark and lifeless corridors that the day before had been filled with light and people. A long scorch mark slashed through the mural from one out of sight end to the other, stinking of charred metal and paint. Artistry and simple fun we're always the first casualties under the Empire's heel.

Kallus hunched forward and clapped his hands over his ears as the piercing shriek of tearing metal echoed through the ground above him. He cracked open one bleary eyes as a shadow passed over his face from the outside, black against the stars. The Bridger's radio tower drifted away among the other debris, caught in the gravity of a far away moon. 

He frowned as he wheeled forward stiffly, an anxious knot tying itself in his gut at the feel of something ruffling his hair the wrong was for the air cyclers. Alexsandr's hands froze in their grip around his chair's wheels and he drifted to a stop, horror glimmering in his wide eyes and almost entirely numb to the feeling of narrow spokes striking past his fingertips.

The air current wasn't from malfunctioning life support. A gaping and ragged hole had been blasted into the side of a habitation level somewhere below him, and frozen bodies drifted among the endless night.

Alexsandr began to shiver, despite his thick knitted sweater and the rage that started to boil. _Peace and security_ , his lip curled in a snarl, remembering the old recruitment posters he had once been swayed by, so says the Empire that murders innocents without a qualm.

The entire station's integrity had been compromised by ion cannon fire, Torus' hull coming apart slowly like a frozen explosion.

A few scant seconds of dangerous creaking were his only warning before the floor above him crumbled and fell upon him in smouldering ruins. He shouted, and old reflexes had him cover his face protectively with his forearms as the world flipped backwards.

He landed heavily and stared up at the tops of burning trees, shocked out of the reality of being trapped and tangled within the burning remains of his smashed chair.

The smell of smoke and the heat of the flames choked him. Atticus landed on his knees at his side, shouting through the ringing in his ears. 

Kallus blinked. Atticus was from Garel, not Lothal. And his eyes were green, not deep, oceanic blue. 

"Alex! Alex, can you hear me?" 

_"Ephraim..?"_ He croaked, his voice a rasp in his suddenly parched throat. 

He attempted to scramble back on his elbows, groaning through clenched teeth as the warped and burning metal scraped against his belly.

"Careful! Careful…" Mira hissed, grimacing at his pain, and lifted the debris with all the strength she could muster.

Alexsandr felt her husband's large hands clasp his upper arms and pull him the rest of the way out from under the smouldering wreckage.

Mira brushed ash and little bits of the floor above off of his stomach that had become tangled in the cable threads of his clothing, it was only then that Kallus noticed the blaster held tight in her other hand.

Together, she and Ephraim managed to haul him upright, his arms hooked over their shoulders. He grimaced at the movement, the skin over his stomach feeling too tight and itched painfully beneath his singed clothing.

Ephraim's lips twisted in sympathy of his discomfort. "The empire has come for us." He murmured, adjusting his grip on the taller man's waist to not pull at his clothing.

"I forgot you both are criminals..." Kallus coughed, the lingering taste of smoke smothering his attempt to laugh through his anxiety. He swallowed, suddenly serious. "You'll get away if you leave me behind-"

Mira snapped her fierce blue eyes to his, blazing in their intensity. "That's not happening, Alex. No one is left behind."

His height was a foreign struggle as Ephraim and Mira half carried, half dragged him through the shadowy corridors towards one of the nearby airlocks. 

"Ezra was going to come back for you. That ship is here, the Ghost, and your Garazeb. They're getting people off the station before-"

The ominous and orderly thumping of approaching boot treads had the three of them freeze on the spot, the uncomfortable twisting of anxiety in his gut smothered Kallus' bashfulness at the Lasat being called 'his' Garazeb.

"The other way!" Ephraim hissed. "Other way, quick!"

They hid in a dark alcove tucked into the wall, cast so by the emergency lights, and held their breath as the file of troopers passed by the way they had come.

"What did you mean, 'Ezra was going to come back for me'?" Kallus blinked, whispering the question to the shadow to his left.

"Sometimes he forgets how little he is." Mira hushed, still staring down the darkened corridor the Imperial troops had marched down. "He talks about you a lot, and you're almost family to us."

Alexsandr's breath shuddered out in an unsteady attempt at a laugh. "Well, the lad's fallen through my ceiling so many times we must be at least third cousins by now."

The faintest and briefest of smiles brightened his pinched features at the thought of being family, momentarily deaf to Mira's whispers of 'come on, come on…'.

Their final advantage over the Empire was familiar ground, they knew the station the stormtroopers didn't, and that was almost enough.

The bulk of a familiar ship was visible at the other end of the last corridor, waiting at last in the hangar, it's cargo ramp open for any being who got there in time. Alexsandr's heart stuttered at the sight of his Garazeb standing guard of those already safely behind him, rifle at the ready and little Ezra peering around one of his digitigrade legs.

The two Zabrak brothers huddled together, and Tama just behind with his arms wrapped tight around Rori's middle, the pale blue twi'lek holding their husband's arms with the same desperation. 

Kallus felt the arms around him tighten, and he held on as Ephraim and Mira started to run, and then stumble as white armoured soldiers filed in to block their path. Dread sank cold into Kallus' gut at the sound of boots pacing in behind them.

Mira cast her wide eyes through the cracks in the armoured cage of troopers coming closer, catching Zeb's gaze, and the glint off his bared teeth as he took one heavy pace closer. Fear and unshed tears glistened in Mira's sapphire eyes, but she held her ground with a decisive tenseness bunching in her shoulders. 

Zeb's own mighty shoulders drooped, he'd seen the very same on the palace steps when he had gotten separated from his grandmother and the woman she was sworn to protect. 

Mira gathered her courage like a fortress held it's ground and mouthed a single word. _Go._

The stormtroopers closed in.

"Ami!" 

The sound of Ezra's cry shook the Lasat from his painful dreaming and his hand shot down to grasp the little Lothalian boy by the shoulder.

"Zeb, we need to leave right now!" Hera's voice crackled through the onboard comm. 

There was nothing but a cracked whisper left to his voice. "Yeah…I know." 

Zeb winced at the smack of plastoid against flesh, and the electrical snap of stun blasts as Ezra's mother fell limp, Kallus landing heavily beside her as his support crumpled into unconsciousness. He could just see his Alexsandr spit something up at the man who had one boot planted on his chest before his golden head whipped back as the electricity from another stun round crackled across his skin. 

A deep and threatening growl woke in the depths of the Lasat's chest but the sound was all but entirely smothered by the roar of the Ghost's engines. He caught the flash of fluorescent lights glinting off his lover's bared teeth before his body slumped, succumbing to the whiteout. 

Garazeb knelt and tightened his grip around Ezra's torso, holding the boy's little body securely against him. "M sorry kid…"

He slung the hefty bo-rifle onto his back and punched the button to seal the ramp shut.

Ezra wailed as it began to close. "No! _No, no, no, no! Ami! Dada!"_ He screamed and struggled, fighting against the Lasat's hold on him.

The cargo ramp sealed finally with a hiss, cutting off all other sound except distraught sobbing as the little boy gave up and clung to him, fat tears of hopeless anguish rolling down his mottled cheeks.

Zeb gently turned the little boy's head away from where his parents had been, and covered one chilly little human ear with the pad of his palm. 

" 's gonna be alright, kit…" He rumbled gently, sweeping a hand soothingly over Ezra's hair as the ship lurched beneath their feet. "We're gonna get 'em back. I promise."

*

The world swam back into focus as Kallus was roused from his blackout unconsciousness by the sounds of mechanical fastening somewhere below him.

"I assure you," he slurred groggily, rolling his head to the side to stare into the lifeless visor of the only stormtrooper he wasn't seeing double of, "restraining my legs is quite unnecessary."

A muffled sniff of disdain hissed from inside that too clean helmet, and there was no other warning before the trooper's armoured fist connected sharply with his mouth. The force of the punch whipped Alexsandr's head back to connect with the wall of the prisoner transport. His vision spotted once more and his head rolled forwards, feeling suddenly far too heavy upon his broad shoulders. 

Bleary gold eyes blinked at the feeling of something warm curling around his hand, and Kallus squinted at the woozy figure of a man bound beside him, with a bruised temple and a horrifically blackened eye.

"Ephraim..?" He croaked.

Ezra's father nodded.

"Where are they taking us?" He murmured across the short distance between them. Whispers carried; he learned that sneaking into the academy kitchens after lights out with...

Those fingers squeezed tightly around his own again. "I don't know. Whatever happens, Alex, we never meant for this-."

"No talking!" The commander barked, striking the wall between them beside Kallus' ear with his deactivated electrobaton.

Kallus held tighter to Ephraim's bruised hand. Nothing good came of antagonizing unsupervised stormtroopers.

It was only then that he noticed they were all clad in prisoners jumpsuits, and the thought of stormtroopers stripping and clothing him again while unconscious had bile rising to burn the inside of his throat.

The hours passed in uncertain silence, save from the groggy moans of Mira coming to across from them as the ship's hyperdrive blazed them into the depths of Imperial territory, and the redacted coordinates of sadistic nowhere. Kallus kept his head down, focusing instead with as much willpower as he had left on the tremble of Ephraim's fingers around his, the troopers hadn't noticed that yet.

The transport's thrusters cut off sharply and rocked them within their bindings. Kallus' head snapped painfully to the side and collided with a metal bar, the dull pain of the beginnings of a bruise knocked him further off balance.

"Welcome home, rebel scum!" A trooper clad all in black sneered as he mounted the ramp, grabbing Ephraim by his hair and throwing him to the ground once his restraints had unlocked.

As soon as Kallus' own were loosened, he collapsed to the floor of the shuttle.

"Get up!" The death trooper spat, kicking the air from Kallus' chest.

"I can't." Alexsandr spoke slowly when he managed to gasp enough breath to do so, his voice calm despite the manic thunderstorm of his heartbeat.

That steel toe of that same boot struck him beneath the chin, knocking his teeth painfully together and catching his tongue with the taste of blood. He doesn't have to elaborate, as two troopers hefted him up to drag down the despairing grey corridors by his elbows.

He didn't see what happened to the Bridger's, he was alone aside from the guards and their iron grip.

Screams, sobbing, and manic babbling in languages he couldn't place echoed through the icy cold labyrinthian halls of that unmarked prison, and Alexsandr shuddered as they dragged past a sealed cell door with the wirring of a torture droid accompanied by wet screaming seeping too clearly from behind it.

He began to shiver again.

He barely had time to brace himself for the harsh impact of the cold durasteel as he was unceremoniously dumped onto the floor in an unlit cell. 

Kallus groaned and struggled up to sitting, barely able to see his own hands through the gloom and the faint red of a light somewhere. 

He jolted as the new hands that scooped him up by his underarms and lifted him to sit on the low bunk were surprisingly strong and cold, cold enough to feel through the thin fabric of his prisoner's jumpsuit. 

Most shockingly of all the other being's attributes, their skin appeared to be blue and rough like a shark's skin.

"Lieutenant Kallus?" A smooth voice near purred through the darkness from the owner of those same hands that brushed the dirt and smoothed the wrinkles off his jumpsuit. "You have been away a long time." 

The being's breath was unsettlingly cold as it fanned delicately across Kallus' face, and the alien glow of carmine eyes reflected eerily off the polished rank bar pinned to the man's breast.

Kallus' brow furrowed. "...Grand Admiral..?" He addressed cautiously, for once hoping his former Imperial memory hadn't failed him.

Those eyes widened slightly, and Alexsandr guessed that meant the upward tick of brows and approval.

"Very astute." The Grand Admiral praised, and began to slowly pace in front of the cot. Unease clenched deep within Alexsandr's gut as his only source of light blinked and dimmed in the shadow of impressively sharp cheekbones.

"You have come into contact with known rebels, twice in fact." The red glow of Thrawn's eyes fanned low beneath the lashes of his narrowed eyes and shone down the regal slope of his nose.

Alexsandr's heart began to pound. "I don't know them. I repaired their droid once, that's all."

Thrawn hummed shortly, either unconvinced or uncaring, or mentally storing that confession away for later use. He paused then, turning back to Kallus with a gleam in his eyes.

"This rebel cell, would they return to you if their droid required repairing again?"

Alexsandr fought not to clench his fingers into his palms, already slippery from cold sweat. "I don't know." He said slowly, cautious. "They know I've been imprisoned, they wouldn't likely believe I escaped on my own." 

Thrawn waved his hand dismissively. "Perhaps. Perhaps pirates have taken control of the transport, and expelled it's Imperial inhabitants."

The grand admiral offered the datapad held beneath his arm. He drew his hand back suddenly with a low muttering as he adjusted the brightness to it's lowest setting before handing it over again. 

Alexsandr thought better of asking. The light from the screen still burned his eyes, even dimmed, and he blinked hard to dispel the haziness.

His lips parted around a silent breath as he read on; drafts of medical procedures, payments, reinstatements, even a copy of a letter about the medal he had refused after the Imperial failure at Onderon.

Thrawn's voice was a soft hiss of cold silk and breath. "Return to us, lieutenant Kallus. You're an intelligent man, a commendation and a position in the Imperial Security Bureau awaits you." 

Alexsandr brushed the pad of his thumb across the header for experimental surgeries, then clenched his fingers around the datapad so hard the screen cracked. He raised his chin, holding out the damaged datapad and locked his blazing eyes with the other being. "I refuse."

Thrawn made a low and dismissive noise, seemingly unsurprised by his answer but inclined his head regardless and accepted the little device back under the crook of his arm, an odd look in his glowing eyes. A flicker of pride.

"Very well, former lieutenant Kallus. We will not speak again."

The Chiss produced a slim code cylinder from his pocket and unlocked the cell door, a narrow shaft of bleaching white light burned Alexsandr's sore and straining eyes. 

The final sight he got of Thrawn's unyielding profile through his bleary vision was the other man haloed in unnatural prison light before the door sealed shut, and once more left him alone in the darkness.


	5. Chapter 5

The verdant forests of Yavin IV were a stark change to the void of dark space, and the Ghost's descent had the highest branches close enough to touch if the ramp were lowered. 

The humidity Zeb hated, but being surrounded by old structures and greenery felt familiar and calming, but this time he was nowhere near a window. He couldn't bear to look at the meager amount of Torus Station's refugees they had managed to rescue that hadn't been able to flee themselves, his Alexsandr wasn't among them. 

Garazeb had fled to his cabin after handing out blankets, caf, and ration bars with Sabine when a soft bodied cathar had gently taken his hand and told him just as gently that it wasn't his fault.

The door to his cabin hissed open and Kanan's silhouette and shadow cut through the white lights. "C'mon buddy," he coaxed, holding out one partially gloved hand, "We've landed, it's time to go." 

That kind hand stayed outstretched for Zeb to curl his own huge fingers around, and he let Kanan lead him down the hallway until he was ready to let go again. He wasn't, but there were rumors enough about all of them. 

He achingly released Kanan's fingers as the corridor widened into the upper half of the cargo bay, and where the rest of the crew and their rescued innocents waited. Sunlight and jungle scents wafted up the open ramp, carrying the sounds of chatter and ship repairs along with them. 

Zeb followed the Jedi down the ladder, the blind man feeling for the gap in the railing and his boots remembering where to put themselves to lower him safely.

The crew disembarked among those seeking refuge, the young mandalorian slipping over to Garazeb's side and bumping her shoulder into his elbow to catch his attention and flash him a smile. Hera paused beside their new charge and knelt down to be his height, a little boy alone was hard to forget or ignore.

"Stay here on the ship Ezra," she said softly, one hand lingering on his shoulder. "We won't be gone long, okay? We'll all be right back." She blew a small breath from her nose as Ezra only nodded, he hadn't spoken since he had exhausted himself crying as they jumped to hyperspace hours ago.

Ezra watched them go, half hidden behind one of the ramps hydraulic arms, waiting for them to cross the landing field. He waited as long as his patience would let him, and when they were finally far enough away to not hear him go, Ezra dashed into the closest hangar.

None of the rebels noticed him scrambling up the wall, too preoccupied with betting pool gossip and urgent repairs.

Ezra shuffled through the narrow ventilation channels that ran through the ancient temple as quietly as he could, the scents of humid forest and old stone seeping into his clothing with every movement. He had snuck out of the rebel's ship and scrambled up into the nearest air vent, slipping through the life support vents of Torus Station being a penchant of his certainly made it easier to follow the odd mismatched crew stealthily from above. 

He crawled through the channel above the sealed door and into a small carved hollow secluded by a metal vent, just big enough for him to fit with his knees drawn up to his chest. 

Ezra frowned, their voices too soft amidst the low hum of communications machinery for him to hear anything but a few scant words when tempers grew heated.

"I'm sorry captain Syndulla," the woman in white robes sighed, "but these places are made not to be found."

Hera stepped closer, formality momentarily forsworn as something akin to desperation rose to the forefront. "We have their son with us. He's only a child."

Senator Mothma lowered her delicate chin and sighed softly through her nose as though pained. "Then he will need you. I am sorry." Her apology was as genuine and gentle as the hand that came to rest on Hera's arm.

The pilot's narrow shoulders drooped as she turned, and Mon's hand fell softly away like the first snows of winter.

Hidden above them, Ezra crawled back into the vent and away, biting down on his trembling lower lip until it hurt. 

"What about Alex?" Zeb hissed, leaning close to Hera's ear cone as she walked away, his own ears angrily laying flat to his head as he lumbered along beside her. "He's no 'criminal', he's just a guy."

"I don't know Zeb," she sighed, as weary as she was honest, "but if we can find them, we're getting them out."

 _There it was_. Zeb couldn't hide the warmth of her. _That Syndulla fire that pulled them out of hell time and again._

"I need to go and see about resupplying the Ghost, can you get started on the repairs? We took a few hits back there and a couple hit the Phantom."

Zeb nodded, happy to have something to lighten her load and keep himself busy at the same time. 

His feline ears flicked at the feel of one of her gloved hands raising to lay against his chest. "Thank you, Zeb." 

He ducked his head down, bumping his brow against the ridges of her headtails as the little sweeps of her thumb threatened to unspool the thread holding him together. Hera leaned up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek before drawing away.

His ears lowered as he watched her go. 

Something he couldn't name prickled uncomfortably beneath his fur as he could feel several sets of eyes on his back, and if it was their refugees recording testimonials for the Senator he couldn't bear to look. The guise of a brute was his safety, and Garazeb growled lowly to himself as he slunk away.

A rare breeze ruffled Zeb's exposed fur as he stepped out of the shelter of Massassi Temple and onto the landing field, ears flicking in frustration. He sighed raggedly, expelling the breath he'd been holding and dragged a four clawed hand down his face, leaving hot trails scored into the skin beneath the short covering of velvety fur.

He hated it, only fighting the empire when command dubbed it convenient. Both ears flattened down to his skull, Garazeb stalked the short distance toward the eastern treeline where Hera had landed them and for once the ground staff and pilots gave him a wide berth.

Usually he took his merry time crossing the field, checking in with his friends among the pilots and grabbing the last crate some busy mechanics we're struggling with. Right then, he had no words or patience.

The ship was blessedly quiet. Most surreal of all, Chopper hadn't been his usual bothersome self; creating mischief, pranks, and problems wherever he went and whenever the droid felt even the slightest inkling of boredom. 

Zeb scooped up the awaiting tool box and mounted the ladder, the ship's narrow hatches just wide enough for him to fit through. Zeb had learned not to complain, despite the claustrophobia and inevitable cramp he'd get in his hands from the too small tools. Things needed to be fixed, and that was that. 

That being said, and the rarity of the ship being empty of omniscient Jedi, Garazeb could still grumble to himself as he activated the Phantom's hatch controls and squeezed himself in the tiny gap beneath the flooring. He was so focused on adjusting the knocked out steering system he didn't notice the Bridger's son climbing up into the shuttle with him.

A faint sniffle finally drew his attention and he twisted to gaze curiously over his shoulder to see Ezra stood a little way behind him, trembling, and clutching his stuffed Tooka in fear of it disappearing.

" 'eb?" He hiccupped, tears sliding in glistening lines down his cheeks.

"Kit…" Zeb sighed, his tall ears drooping low emphatically as he reached out a hand to the boy.

Ezra wrapped his tiny arms around himself, crushing the toy against his chest. "D-does Mister Kallus hate me..? I-I told him he smelled bad because he smelled like you, and I don't want him t-t-to-!" 

He didn't make it to the end of his hiccupy tangent, crumbling to the ground beneath them to pull his knees up to his chest and wail, lost in despair.

Garazeb dropped his tools without a care as to where they landed, and hopped out of the hatch to kneel in front of the little child to hug him tightly. 

"No! O'course not, kit, he'd never…he'd never..." A purr stalled to life like a candle flame in a blizzard's gale inside his chest and he brushed Ezra's tear damp hair away from his eyes.

"I want to go home!" Ezra sobbed, clinging tightly to Zeb's fur like a lost monkey-lizard's infant. "I want my ami, and dada, and I want mister Kallus back!"

Garazeb swallowed thickly, and blinked back the tears that stung his eyes and threatened to spill over. "It's alright kit, we're gonna find 'em. Whatever it takes, we'll find 'em…" 

"She said you can't go! You promised, and now you wont-!"

It was too much to have hoped that a child with rebel parents and who crawled through air vents for fun wouldn't have snuck in after them.

"I know, kit. But yer parents are rebels, and us rebels look out fer each other, so we will find them. Hera'll search, even if she says to command she won't."

Zeb tightened his arms protectively, and tucked Ezra's head beneath his chin for the little boy to feel his purrs. "We'll get'cha ami and yer dandan back," he rumbled into the Lothalian child's mop of hair. "Don't cry, kid."

Ezra nodded, exhausted after weeping his strength away, and flopped his head forward against the Lasat's softly muscled shoulder, whimpering under his breath. He had just enough strength left to keep his fearful hold on the paw of the little Tooka toy he managed to grab before fleeing, his arm dangling down towards the floor. 

Garazeb sighed, huge shoulders slumping. Everyone had their weakness, and after the war on Lasan on ground they had barely held, frightened and lonely children always pained his heart like nothing else could. Old sorrow threatened to buckle his knees as he took the little boy into his arms, unbidden memories swimming behind his eyes at the last time he had a little one of his own kind clinging to him for comfort. 

The phantom feeling of pitched ringing stealing away with his balance chilled his ears and parched his throat. His grandmother had sent him into the tunnels with the children of Lasan's royal family, the youngest too little to flee on her own legs so a younger Garazeb had scooped her up to hide her face in his shoulder. The wide red flower had fallen from the braid behind her ear; an odd detail that wasn't lost to time for him to recall, but she always had that flower.

He shook himself, ruffling his fur and sweeping those thoughts away. They had gotten out, all of them, and he had succeeded in protecting them until the Wookies had come in great numbers to push back the Imperial forces, eventually driving the bastards back off his planet. 

Zeb knelt slowly, and with a gentleness many ignored, he scooped the little boy up to sit on his forearm with his head pillowed against his shoulder. Humans compared to him were small enough already, their infants were impossibly small and fragile in his large, clawed hands.

He scaled back down the ladder one handed, careful not to jostle the child now in their care, and paced the familiar path towards the sleeping cabins on silent feet. Awkwardness had his tall ears swatting away nothing, the urge to purr to soothe already rumbling within his throat. Garazeb swallowed around the sound, and felt his heart beginning to break as Ezra whimpered against the exposed fur of his shoulder.

His cabin door opened with a hiss under the command of his thumb, casting his shadow and a door shaped shaft of white light into the comfortable gloom, illumining the bottom bunk. He rubbed the pad of one large hand over Ezra's shoulder gently, pausing to wonder how high up the little boy was used to sleeping. 

It was a Lasat thing, he supposed, his people's children climbing high and swinging off the tree's leaf and blossom laden branches the same way he used to swing off of his grandmother's bo-staff whenever she held it slung across her shoulders. The top bunk just felt safer to him to sleep in, it also had him conveniently out of Sabine's reach when early morning mischievousness got the better of her.

Zeb shrugged one huge shoulder softly, bouncing the Lothalian boy up a little higher. His head didn't raise at the motion, and whistling little breaths stirred against Garazeb's striped purple fur. Cupping the back of the sleeping child's head, he lowered Ezra to lay flat on the bottom bunk, the adult sized mattress far too big for him. His tall ways folded low as the tiny human whimpered in his sleep. 

He never used one himself, his thick fur kept him warm enough most nights but for a fragile human infant he snagged a folded blanket from the stack stored behind the ladder and draped it over Ezra's little body, tucking it snugly around the boy and his tooka toy.

Zeb backed out his cabin quietly, leaving that little knitted toy to guard his dreams and almost tripped over a lonely MSE droid, too focused on the making sure the sound of the door closing too see it. 

Garazeb's ears lowered as he recognized the cracks in it's diligently pieced together casing and numbly felt his shoulders droop under an invisible weight that was almost too much to bear. 

Tooka warbled sadly, far too understanding, and rolled closer to rub against his ankles.

Zeb swallowed, and crouched slowly to pet the backs of his knuckles along the little droids back, as he had seen Alexsandr do. He dropped down onto one knee to steady himself, and once again scraped a four fingered and clawed hand wearily down his face, the new sting dampening the old.

"I guess yer stickin' with me now, huh?" 

A soft, musical whistle drifted back at him.

"A'right. C'mon then mousie." Zeb sighed, hauling himself back up to standing.

"Zeb…" Hera's voice beckoned him into their little common room, where she sat at the table with three steaming mugs set in front of her folded hands and Kanan's mask at her elbow. "Come and sit."

It was hard to disobey any kind order Hera gave, and there was yet to be an order he didn't want to follow for the woman who spoke them. Kallus' MSE droid followed at his ankle, close enough that his fur brushed against it's casing.

" 's the kid…" He sighed wearily, huge shoulders slumping with an invisible weight as he slid down into his wicker chair bolted down opposite her. 

She smiled sadly and scooted a mug of sweet, milky caf his way, just the way he liked it. The mug itself was a custom, comically large against her hands but perfect for Garazeb's size.

He dropped his gaze to watch his own fingers curl around the warm ceramic, one ear swatting at the air at the sound of softly approaching boot falls, steadily and deliberate just like Kanan himself. Garazeb held himself motionless, waiting for the gentle touch and reassurance he allowed the Jedi to give, old assurance from years ago that they both still found comfort in. 

Kanan reached out and thumbed one of the Lasat's ears, bare fingers massaging just beneath the tuft of purple decorating the tip. An unsteady, rattling purr thrummed inside Zeb's throat and he leaned into the touch, drinking in the Jedi's grounding force.

The air stirred behind him as Kanan spoke. "Talk to us, big guy."

It took some time for the words to finally come, Garazeb's throat too tight to ask. "...Do yer think we'll find 'em?"

Kanan's slow breaths upset their own rhythm as something too pained to be a sigh had his shoulders sink. "I don't know, buddy." He said honestly, the hand stroking Zeb's ear dropping to squeeze the Lasat's broad shoulder. "But I think so."

That perked both of Zeb's ears up tall. A little smile had one of Kanan's slender cheeks curve as he slid down onto the bench at Hera's side. 

"Something...feels? With loss there's just an ache and nothingness, but this feels like something's there."

Even blinded, honesty still shone in his once teal eyes. Kanan's hand drifted across the table top until the backs of his fingers met hot ceramic, and he cupped both palms around his caf gratefully.

"We'll find them, Zeb. I don't know how or when, but the force is with us."

A weak laugh had Garazeb's mighty shoulders tremble and he dipped his head to take a tentative swallow of hot caf. "Yer sound a little bit like Chava, only about the force, not the Ashla." 

The jedi snorted into his caf, happy to take his friend's attempt at humour and run with it until the other man laughed a little louder, and sounded something more like his usual self. "I can find a stick to hit you with if that's what you want from me."

Hera watched them with a small smile of her own hidden behind the rim of her own mug. They'd always turn out alright, they always had each other.

Kanan's hand froze half way outstretched towards Zeb's shoulder, brow suddenly furrowed, and he rose to stand half out of his seat beside his wife as the door to Zeb's room hissed open. 

"I found them!" Ezra cried shrilly, skidding to a stop in the doorway. "I found ami and dada!"


	6. Chapter 6

Ezra couldn't remember ever being on a ship before, the evacuation as blurred as an old bad dream. He knelt on the co-pilot's chair with both of his little hands and his nose pressed against the transparisteel window, watching the stars shoot past in open wonder. 

Hera smiled wistfully over at the little boy from the pilot's seat. She flicked a few switches to mask their impending arrival, adrenaline already starting it's heady rush at the impending fight waiting at the other end of their hyperspace jump.

"It's beautiful up here, isn't it?" She murmured, smiling out the same window herself. Ezra's hair bounced and he nodded. He had knelt there for hours.

The cockpit door hissed open behind them. Kanan paused, mapping out the room with the force, feeling the curls of warmth that marked his wife and the little force sensitive boy in the force. 

"Ezra," he spoke quietly, foggy eyes closing in a slow blink, "come and kneel here with me." 

Ezra scrambled down from the co-pilot's chair, the seat of it too high off the ground for him to have sat on properly, and copied Kanan's stance. He poked his tongue out curiously as he folded down on one knee after the other, sitting back against his heels but fidgeting where Kana held himself motionless aside from the steady rise and fall of his shoulders along with his breathing.

The Jedi's lips twisted into a small smirk and he chuckled softly. "Don't worry, you don't have to stay still. Now, close your eyes." 

He gently reached his open palms forward to cup the backs of Ezra's far smaller hands. "Focus. Think about who you're searching for, and reach out. They're there, we just have to find them." 

The hairs along Kanan's arms began to prickle and rise to stand on their ends, the stirrings in the force strong enough to affect the physical world.

Hera too, turned to peek over her shoulder, hushed mutterings of ' _I am one with the force and the force is with me_ ' in their voices but odd, just behind her.

Deep blue eyes flew open wide and Ezra leaped up to his feet. "There! Over there!" He cried, dashing over to the cockpit window and pointing out into the darkness.

As they drew closer, the shadow of a huge asteroid blocked out the light of the stars so far away behind it. As the asteroid turned, the pale light of a far away star reflected off the metallic structure, visible for the most fleeting of seconds before hiding itself again in shadow.

"I'm scanning a power reading…" Hera muttered, gazing at the little monitor and blindly flicking a few switches to mask their approach.

"There!" Ezra's extended hand wobbled as he bounced on the balls of his feet.

As the ship drew silently closer, cloaked to hide from Imperial scans, the prison built into the hollowed out side of that very asteroid crawled into view. 

"Chopper, can you patch us into their comms?" 

The old CP droid got to work with only minimal complaining, their captain being the one person he sassed the least. The click of his utility arm spinning in the console port. Hera frowned, picking up a few scant words through the mess of static that flooded the dashboard's receiver, a muddle of voices and blaster fire. A riot had been instigated, that now spread throughout the entire prison.

"We can use this," Kanan nodded, stepping forward to rest his hand on the back of Hera's chair, the tops of his fingers dangling to brush the edge of her shoulder. "They'll be focused on their prisoners trying to fight and escape to notice us until we're already there."

"Sounds like a plan, love." There was a hard edge to her voice, not coldness but something coiled and ready. When things were at their worst and Hera was at the helm, there was always the promise of victory. She glowed brighter than any star through the force, cutting through the shrouding fog of evil around them like a lighthouse's beam; Kanan always felt a little warmer and brighter himself at her side. Rebellions might well be built on hope, but Hera Syndulla was made of it.

Hera tipped her head just enough to touch his arm with her temple and the sloping ridge of one lekku. She flicked a switch on the panel in front of her, activating the ship wide microphone. "Gear up, kids! We're almost there." 

_"A'right! We'll be in the cargo bay."_

She smiled a little wider then, as Zeb sounded more like himself. Whacking stormtroopers always improved his mood, surely very cathartic after everything he had faced before the war at their side.

Hera tipped her chin up, conscious of her husband's eyes on her. "Love?" She asked coyly. Her lips parted softly at the gentle slip of Kanan's warm fingertips under her chin, leaving warmth to spread along her jawline in the wake of his touch. 

"Love?" A whisper this time, soft enough to not even stir the air between them, as springtime green eyes lingering on the stuttering part of his own lips as he leaned in closer. Foggy teal eyes beckoned her closer, and she leaned up to meet his kiss halfway. 

"You look…so bright." He breathed against her, reverent. 

Hera reached to cup his neatly bearded jaw, the hairs softly crinkling against the leather of her gloved palm. The feel of his hair against her bare skin was a feeling once so unusual now craved. Kanan smiled, and popped the button that held the leather cinched around her wrist and freed her hand from the glove. That hand slipped up higher and into his hair, freeing the soft and well combed locks to fall around his shoulders. 

"Come back to me safe." She whispered, withdrawing just enough for the hand in his hair to cup his jaw once again, thumb sweeping and smoothing the longer hairs beside his mouth.

Kanan's cheek filled her palm as he smiled, and he turned to press a lingering kiss to the inside of her slim wrist. "For you, I always will."

He held out the loose glove for Hera to slip her hand back into, and planted a sweet kiss just beneath her ear cone in farewell. 

"Come on, Ezra." He smiled warmly as he pulled his hair back up into its usual tail. "I'll need you to help me on the ramp, can you do that?" 

The little boy nodded and followed at his side, staring up at him strangely.

The air changed as they paced through the main corridor, tension and adrenaline becoming an almost palpable thing. It reminded him a little of the clone war, but for the first time in a long time that realization didn't set a stutter in his heart or sweat across his brow. This memory wasn't hard and jagged like the others, it was softer, warmer. Master Bilaba dressed in armour and robes, and Caleb Dume dashing to catch up after clapping his hands across the cheering line of clone troopers. It was that same feeling; readiness, excitement, a reckoning for their relentless enemy. And peace, Depa was a beacon of it, and mischief when the time allowed. 

Sabine and Zeb waited in the hold, settling armour and counting explosives, Sabine always had a need for explosives. It's a Wren speciality, she had once said with a shrug and a tip of her helmet, a wide smile behind the painted Beskar.

The blinded Jedi mounted the ladder, slipping with a practiced ease down it's sides and landing neatly. He silently caught Ezra, as he slipped trying to do the same, and lowered the Lothalian boy to the floor with a kind chuckle and a low whisper of, "You'll get the hang of it."

 _"It's a mess down there, kids._ " Hera called through the ship wide comm, her clear voice echoing from above. _"The Imperials are scrambling to get on top of that riot. That's our way in and out."_

"Got it, mother!" Sabine grinned, shaking the tension out of her arms, her words only partly in jest. Another Wren speciality, or a Mandalorian one, foundlings apparently could be any family member.

Kanan smiled at his Sabine appointed children and lowered himself to kneel at Ezra's height, one hand resting gently on the little boy's shoulder. "Stay here, Ezra," he said softly, "it could be dangerous outside. Come out only when I say, do you understand?" 

Ezra nodded, and backed up a few steps to hide behind a stray crate pushed up against the hold's wall. 

Kanan stood, and let the rolling waves of the Lasat's confidence wash over him. "Let's do this Zeb." 

Garazeb grinned, cracking his neck in one jerking motion. "Oh yeah." He punched the control to lower the ramp, knees loose and ready to either spring into the thick of the fray or behind cover.

The hanger was deserted, scorch marks, shattered bits of plastoid armour and toppled supply crates littered the once shiny floor.

"Looks like we missed the fight here…" Sabine muttered, lowering the scope on her helmet to inspect some blasts that had managed to hit the ceiling far above them.

The sputter of an astromech's rocket sounded above them and Chopper landed heavily beside Kanan on the ramp. The old droid warbled matter of factly and pointed to a port beside a console against one wall, rolling away before anyone could tell him what to do, not that he'd listen anyway.

He plugged into the Imperial system, sifting through thousands of databases and bludgeoning his way past security firewalls. No one was paying attention yet anyway, so why choose subtlety.

Kanan simply shrugged in response to the questioning tug on his sleeve. "Chopper's just like this. He's old." He muttered, leaning down a little so his voice wouldn't carry far. Ezra giggled, a relief to hear after the little boy's stricken silence.

Chopper's grumbling warble echoed back at them, and Kanan straightened up to hear better.

_"Prisoner_0864. Kallus. Removed from his cell an hour ago."_

"Removed from his cell-? That's not good." Sabine muttered.

Zeb growled dangerously, flexing his claws. "I doubt the guards let 'em out ter frolic."

The droid's sudden flood of immensely explicit binary had Kanan jolt on the spot, and he cupped his hands over Ezra's ears. "Chop…" He began sternly. 

_"Pryce is here, Second Favourite would be where_ that _is."_

The Jedi frowned, laying one hand on Ezra's shoulder and the over his own heart in mock offence. "I thought _I_ was 'Second Favourite'?" 

Chopper waved one grabber absently, wobbling it from side to side. _"Close third."_

Kanan snorted and shook his head. They weren't going to find anything new from the prison guards sparse reports, it was time to find their people the Jedi way. 

"Come stand here beside me, Ezra." He instructed kindly, remembering the steps he had taken beside his old master in search of that lost patrol. 

"Now focus again, like we did up there. Very good, just like that." He praised, feeling a second shaky tapping into the force beside him. "Close your eyes, and feel. You have a strong connection to your parents, Ezra, use it to find them again." 

Ezra swallowed, raising one hand and closing both eyes surely after peeking up at the older Jedi first. That hand extended further of its own accord, and Kanan's did the same, fingers twitching under the pull of an invisible might.

Kanan's foggy eyes opened again, slowly, and his brow set itself into a focused frown.

"Zeb, down and that way!" He called, pointing to the narrow door to the left of them. 

Garazeb nodded, teeth shining and bared and bound for the door, extending his rifle into it's staff form with a practiced flick. Time to bring a new wave of noise. 

"Sabine!" The Jedi called her way. "Directly above us!"

"Got it!" She dashed away in a flash of colour, standing out so vividly against the oppressive walls of lifeless grey.

"And now we wait…" Kanan murmured, lowering his hand to Ezra's shoulder again, soothing the little boy's silent fears with his own warmth through the force. Ezra's arm dropped to his side again, fingers fiddling with the cuff of his sleeve, and he reached up to hold one of Kanan's fingers.

Imperial halls and structures all seemed the same, even the base constructed on Mandalore. Sabine hummed to herself, tracking her own path from the hangar. _Two more lefts and an elevator shaft? Aha!_

"That's a huge design flaw…" She muttered, magnetizing a pouch full of detonators to the inside of the second lift and punching the call button for the first.

If the elevators worked then they hadn't shut down the power to the section they are in, either too assured that their prisoners wouldn't or couldn't reach a ship to escape, or the security staff had already met their ends.

She took off at a sprint, counting the seconds down until a muffled explosion echoed in the silence behind her, knocking that lift out for use by any stormtroopers who intended to sneak up behind.

She rounded the next corner, hot on the trail of shouts and blaster fire. 

At the end of the hall in a narrow junction, Ephraim stood hunched over a power terminal, one arm curled over his head to protect himself from the showers of sparks raining down from blaster shots ricocheting off the walls. Mira stood at his back like a shield, a desperate kind of hope shining in her bright eyes. 

The young mandalorian skidded to a stop and unholstered her blasters in the same heartbeat, shooting down the last trooper. His body spun with the force and dropped with a thud, the unique ring of her shots sounding louder than the rest.

The Bridger's both whipped around, ready to bolt away or shoot.

Sabine holstered her blasters calmly and held out her hands in a show of passiveness. "My name's Sabine, I'm here with Zeb and Ezra, we've come to get you out!"

Mira lowered her blaster slowly, her wide, sunken eyes fixed on Sabine's bright armour. "How did you find us?" She whispered.

"Ezra did. Your kid can do things that kanan can do, there might be a future Jedi in him-!" Her words were drowned out by two fast shots from her blasters, taking down two more guards in the time it took for her to draw them again before the troopers could shout.

Mira's voice, though quiet, echoed through the cold halls behind the dying ring of blaster fire. "We always knew that he was made of stardust…" Her eyes widened suddenly, staring the other way down the corridor in front of them at the approach of plastoid boots.

The sleeve of Ephraim's jumpsuit had been torn off and wrapped around his hand like a makeshift bandage, what skin remained visible shone a painful red and uncomfortably blistered. A close range blaster wound.

Ash streaked across the Lothalian man's face, smudging from his hairline. "Alex isn't in his cell-" he began.

"Zeb's got him by now," Sabine grinned under her Beskar helmet, giddy to imagine the mayhem her foundling brother would leave in his wake. "Let's go!"

Amongst the maze of narrow halls, Garazeb prowled towards two familiar scents, one he had darkly dreamed about getting his claws into for what she had done to Hera. A growl awoke unrestrained within the cage of his chest, rough and rumbling. Of course she'd be here, in a place like this.

A bitten off and echoing scream had him freeze, blood simultaneously running cold and boiling with rage. That growl flared into a lilting snarl, and Zeb took off at a sprint.

*

"Why are you doing this?" Alexsandr gasped, his breath coming in short fits. He managed to gulp enough breath to turn his uneven wheezing into a ragged snarl. "I don- I don't know anything!" 

Pryce was unmoved. If anything, Kallus' resistance amused her. "Of course you don't. It's simply that no one here cares about you, so I can do whatever I like."

She grinned, bright and sadistic like a cruel loth-cat with a small rodent caught within it's clutches, and thumbed a command button on her datapad. Kallus shrieked through clenched teeth as electricity burned through his skin.

"The transport from Lothal doesn't arrive until tomorrow," she grinned with a sadistic leer, raising her voice over his bitten down screaming. "I'm just here to make sure all my toys are working…" 

One day, Pryce. Alexsandr hoped through the mental whiteout of electrocution. One day, you'll get what you deserve at the hands of someone you've had in this chair. 

The searing heat and the pain threatened to cleave him in two.

The sudden nothingness left him reeling, his own breath sounding too loud in his ears. He blinked the sweat and double vision from his eyes to see a mirage of his lover, dark and broad shouldered silhouetted against the too bright lights.

"Zeb?" He mumbled, head rolling forwards to bring that phantom image closer.

Two large and warm hands came to cradle Alexsandr's cheeks with a reverent gentleness that had his vision swim for a different reason.

" 'm here babe, I gotcha. It's gonna be okay now…"

He rubbed his scent back into the thick hair covering Kallus' cheeks, chasing away the stagnant scents of imprisonment. 

"How'd you find me here?" Alexsandr asked, his voice still a little slurred. 

"It's a long ol' story." Zeb laughed, the sound no more than a shudder in his breath. "Jus' know, the Ashla, the Bendu, and the Bogan couldn't keep me from you." 

Tears shone in Kallus' eyes, and his lips hung slack around a gasp. Their foreheads came to rest together, the galaxy could wait a breath as they drank in each other's scents, Alexsandr still disoriented from being repeatedly filled with experimental truth serum mixtures.

"I love yer…" Zeb whispered against the human's dirty hair. "I love yer…" He whispered against against Alexsandr's cheek, blinking away the warm tears than fell onto his face.

"Get me out of here, Zeb…" Kallus wheezed, nuzzling against his lover's cheek and greedily filling his lungs with the scent of Lasat.

Zeb nodded, letting him go slowly to crouch at his feet and ripped apart the restraints pinning Kallus ankles. He glanced up in open concern as his lover's body swayed.

"I'm fine-" Kallus choked around a rasping cough. 

Zeb's ears drooped and his heavy brow ticked up simultaneously, as fine was truthfully the furthest from what he looked.

Trooper's boots thumped audibly above them, fast as though running in formation.

"Give me her blaster, and stop looking at me like that- I can still shoot." Alexsandr spat, vitriolic from a new surge of fear at them capturing Zeb too. "I think I'd find it quite cathartic, actually." 

Garazeb nodded, brow hardened to a grim scowl, and he scooped up Pryce's fallen blaster with his foot before passing it off into one hand.

Alexsandr curled his fingers around the grip with a determined nod, squeezing hard enough to drain the colour from his knuckles.

"Okay," Zeb nodded, cupping Alexsandr's cheeks and jaw within the span of his huge, warm hands. "Let's go."

With the utmost care, he hefted Kallus over his shoulder and looped one large arm around the backs of the human's knees to keep him balanced. A feeble noise escaped past Kallus' chapped lips as his weight settled on his stomach over the shoulder piece of the Lasat's armour, the pressure sending fiery sparks of pain shooting through the tracks of red that spread across his skin.

Two voiceless pats landed and lingered in the space between Zeb's shoulder blades, and he fought back the natural instinct to let his ears fold in sympathy. _I'm okay_ , that touch said.

Garazeb blew out a breath and tightened his grip slowly around Kallus' legs. A low growl awoke in his throat as the war drum beat of his heart began to sound within his ears. _These Imps were goin' ter get it good._

He extended his bo-rifle onto staff configuration, wieldable in one hand just like his gran used to when dealing with rambunctious recruits who tried to subvert the word of a commander shorter than them.

The first wave of stormtroopers stood in formation at the end of the hall, creating a polished firing line against a static enemy, but Zeb kept on running.

"Hold tight, Kal-!" He roared, igniting the ends of his bo-rifle and slamming one electrified tip into the side of the closest trooper. He used the momentum to duck low and follow through the motion with an almighty heave, throwing the unsuspecting fool to the side and directly into his comrades. They all toppled in a comical line, like wooden children's toys.

Blasts from Kallus' stolen blaster rang out twice behind him, and a growl of frustration and pain in his ear made the fur on his neck stand up on it's ends. 

"There's too kriffing many, Zeb, the whole garrison is out in force." The man over his shoulder groaned through grit teeth.

"A'right. Drop that piece of _Imp garbage_ and hold this. Best yer hold on tight, too." 

Kallus threw Pryce's blaster at the head of one dazed trooper. It bounced off their helmet comically, knocking the poor fool back out with a far away sounding groan. Zeb snorted.

"Good aim."

A breathless laugh ruffled the fur behind his ear. "You've no idea of the truth of that statement, my darling Lasat."

Zeb chuckled and collapsed the staff back into it's rifle form and passed it over his shoulder. Alexsandr reached to take the sacred weapon into his reverent hands, testing the weight of it before holding it ready to aim behind them.

It was a strange feeling, hearing his own rifle firing off against his ear. Once more, thoughts of Lasan came back to flash behind his eyes. A younger version of himself, a staggletoothed kit, pouncing at his Gran's heels as she snapped orders at her Honour Guard recruits. A lesson in humility, she had called it, wrangling recruits that stood a foot taller than her at least by knocking them on the ear for backtalk about her height.

He grinned, feral and toothy; what a Lasat his Sasha would make.

Two more ringing shots had two more heavy thunks and muffled groans landing on the ground behind them. They swung around the next corner and almost collided with a suit of brightly painted mandalorian armour.

_"Zeb-!"_

_" 'bean-!"_ They cried simultaneously, unsteadily clasping at each other's wrists to hold still.

Kallus couldn't not smile at the sight of them both from the corner of his eye; he had missed colour. He swallowed, and pawed at the air until his cramping fingers found Ephraim's bony shoulder. 

"Alex?" Mira breathed, reaching to take his far larger hand in one of hers and rubbing a thumb across his freshly scarred knuckles.

Zeb swivelled his ears forward, offering Kallus and the Bridger's as much privacy as was possible with one of them held over his arm.

Sabine ducked her head to remove her brightly coloured helm, tucking it beneath her arm, and scraped a hand through her equally bright hair.

"The fastest way to the hangar is that way-" Sabine pointed to the third direction at their crossroads with the barrel of the blaster she still held unholstered, "-It's still quiet for now, I guess Kanan's a good distraction."

Zeb snorted, as a rebel Jedi certainly was that.

They only had moments of respite before the clacking echo of plastoid armour began to stamp closer.

"We have to go!" Mira hissed, stepping away and adjusting her grip on her blaster, glancing around with wide, bruised eyes.

Sabine nodded, and settled her helmet back onto her head and drew her second blaster, both weapons primed and ready. Her narrow visor flashed in the fluorescent lights, and with another sharp nod she took the lead as they dashed back toward the hangar, Zeb and Kallus covering their rear.

Once again, stormtroopers stood between them and escape, but this time they were prepared.

An explosive rolled from Sabine's hand and settled at the feet of the troopers firing on the Ghost, they were all too distracted to notice the little flashing canister rocking to a stop between them with all their blaster shots being sent back at them.

Kanan stood on the ramp, stance wide and grounded, with his mouth set in a grim line. The fingers of his right hand twitched along with his manipulation of the force around him, weaving a shield around the ship that had become his home. 

Two wide oceanic eyes watched from behind a crate, anxiety and wonder fixed on the practiced movements and flowing hums of the saber's glowing blade.

The Jedi raised his narrow chin at the sudden explosion that sent the stormtroopers flying into walls and each other, then landing in dazed heaps on the polished floor along with the clatter of their fallen blasters. The carved jaig eyes of the Kanan's mask landed on them across the echoing dock, and he shut off his saber's blade.

"Come on!" He shouted, extending his empty hand in their direction.

They bolted for the ramp between the bodies of the unconscious Imperial forces, their hope finally being answered and that answer only a few scant meters away.

The moment Zeb's clawed feet hit the durasteel ramp, Kallus buried his face into the soft fur of his neck as freedom at last sought to overwhelm him.

"Ami! Dada!" Ezra rushed forward and was instantly scooped up by his father. Voice wavering, Ephraim kissed words of comfort into his son's hair and held his little body close between himself and Mira as they trembled in the final realization that they were free.

Ezra stretched up within his father's grip to squeeze his arms around Kallus' neck, sniffling and hiccuping into his shoulder. 

Zeb smiled, and crouched a little to ease the high difference between the four of them. Kallus extracted himself after several long minutes and pressed his lips gently to the crown of the boy's head, moving to whisper gentle words above his ear when Mira's hands began to comb through her son's tangled hair.

Zeb retreated a little further into the hold and set Kallus down to sit on top of a supply crate before sinking down beside his lover with an arm curled supportively around his back. Alexsandr leaned in close to rest his head on the Lasat's shoulder, rubbing the tip of his nose into soft fur.

Zeb grimaced suddenly, fur prickling and fluffing up awkwardly. Alexsandr quietly snorted the wayward strands out of his nose with a tired smirk. 

"We, uh, don't have any spare clothes. Yer gonna have to stay in that until we get back-"

Kallus shook his head dismissively before settling back down again.

"Right now, my dear, I just want to shower and to sleep." He chuckled wearily, smiling faintly as the Bridger's all sunk together onto the floor in relief, Ezra tucked tight in between them. 

He reached for Garazeb's other hand, tangling their fingers together clumsily. Exhaustion had him drooping against his partners side, too tired for anything less than honestly. Alex tipped his head up a little to blink into the eyes he had missed. 

"But, let's just sit here for a bit, yes?"

A warm and loving purr rumbled all for him from the depths of the Lasat's chest, and he turned his chin to press his plush lips against Alexsandr's temple, finally at peace. At least until Hera flew them back to Yavin to face a scolding from the senator for pulling away to launch their own mission. A stern talking to and a proud smile awaited.


	7. Epilogue

The temples of Yavin IV had been a sight to behold for Alexsandr Kallus and the Bridger's after the disorienting nothingness of prison, as had the bustling rebel presence. Their well practiced evacuation of that moon had been quite the sight too, as that base had become unsafe as the Empire closed in, but truthfully Alexsandr had missed being among the stars while stationed on the surface helping out with droid and minor repairs.

Two years since of war he had been working his hardest anywhere he could on General Dodonna's flagship, repairing whatever needed fixing to keep them in the fight, his long hours broken by a docking ship and strong purple arms.

But at that very moment, every ship hovering at the coordinates dubbed 'Haven' were in unanimous uproar. Open celebration at last in the wake of so much sacrifice and death as an official victory broadcast had been sent out and received by all ships in the rebel alliance's fleet. 

Alexsandr was still reeling from those first few dazed moments of disbelief before his voice had joined the almighty cheer that echoed through the perpetual twilight of space. He turned in his chair to smile in giddy feebleness to the Bridger's beside him at their comm stations, only to see Mira grab her husband by the collar to swoop him low and steal his lips and breath in a passionate kiss. 

Alexsandr bit down on his lip at the sight, and that of two young ensigns pointing and cheering. Ezra had been among those boys once. He had become accustomed to seeing Ezra forever at their side and his parent's elbows, now after so many years it felt just as odd to witness that very same small boy who had fallen through the vent in his ceiling so long ago growing towards adulthood.

It was, of course, hard to keep a young teenage boy out of the action when he was still skilled in sneaking through ventilation shafts, and was beginning to find his feet in the force at Kanan's side on the Ghost.

The Ghost. Kallus bit down on his lip to smother his wide and teary smile, the ship he dreamed of as it flew past stars sometimes unfathomably far away, and that he watched intently as gun batteries fired all around them.

Tears of final relief spilled to shine on his cheeks as he fumbled for their shared comm as Zeb's voice crackled through the receiver, Alexsandr's far away lover finally waiting in the hallway outside the airlock.

Dodonna caught his giddy look and nodded sagely, offering a hand towards the turbolift with a kind smile. Gnawing on his lower lip to keep his own smile at bay, Alexsandr maneuvered himself into the narrow elevator and thumbed the button, waiting for the odd sensation of his stomach flipping at his descent.

The door hissed open and he craned his neck to peer past the throng of victorious rebels, searching for one man in particular, though the man he longed for wasn't hard to find when he stood a good foot above the rest.

A bright, solar fire smile of relief and happiness warmed his whole being to it's core as he spotted his Garazeb. The Lasat's smile matched his own, and Alexsandr laughed breathily behind his hands as Zeb broke into a run to meet him.

"Sasha!" Zeb gasped, skidding to a halt in front of the human's chair and enveloping his lover in the furred safety of his arms. Alexsandr hummed a low sound of contentment and wound his arms around Garazeb's mighty shoulders, nuzzling into the soft tufted fur at the base of one feline ear. 

"Zeb…" He breathed, drinking in the scent of the man he loved. With an adoring purr rattling deep within his chest, Garazeb rocked his weight back and lifted Kallus up into his arms. 

Alexsandr laughed softly at his sudden weightlessness, raised in his warrior's embrace, and held tight to Zeb's shoulders as the Lasat twirled them both around. Golden blond hair swayed with the motion, the softly curling ends brushing against Kallus' jawline and tickling the thicker hairs covering his cheeks.

He could feel Zeb's steadily beating heart trip faster and each sweet huff of breath stirring against his ear. Kallus sighed, tightening his hold, and drifted his bare fingertips across Garazeb's exposed fur just to feel the solid certainty of his lover's presence, proof that they both had made it after everything.

"I want ter ask yer somethin'," Zeb mumbled, leaning in to nuzzle at the soft skin of the human's neck. "I've been wantin' ter ask this for a while..." 

He gently lowered Kallus back into his wheelchair and sank down onto one bent knee at his feet, tall ears flicking in shyness. "Kanan told me this is how you humans do it…" 

Softly, and as though Alexsandr was someone to be cherished, Zeb took both of Kallus' hands into his own; freckled and striped entwined together.

Neither of them cared about the crew and gathered rebel forces gasping and grinning as they all watched. Garazeb bravely cleared his throat, and parted his velvet covered lips.

"Marry me, Sasha Kallus?" 

Alexsandr's dazed silence was sundered by a bright and breathless laugh, that he futilely tried to muffle behind his fingers. 

"Yes…" he whispered then laughed again, manic and dizzy. "Yes, by all the stars, yes!" 

He wrapped his strong arms tightly around Zeb's neck to pull them both together, happiness and warmth bursting from his chest to tingle all the way down to his fingertips. 

A deep purr rattled up from Garazeb's chest and he scrubbed his cheek against Kallus', working in his scent among the golden hair trimmed neatly around the human's jaw. To carry Alexsandr's scent upon his fur, not as a lover but as his mate was a dream Zeb had tucked himself into his bunk with for too long, his thumping heart ached at the distance whenever the war for freedom had them parted. Both men were too giddy to kiss any further than quick, elated presses of their lips between bouts of breathless laughter. 

Viridescent green and star cluster eyes strung love between them, and tenderly their foreheads came to rest together.

They drew back as one just far enough to see each other, and to cup tear damp cheeks, smiling widely in pure joy as there was now no force in the galaxy to make them stop, and as the room around them filled with a new wave of cheers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go! The end! 
> 
> Thank you all so much for reading, and I hope you all enjoyed this 💞


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